


Red Stone

by Jenn0509



Series: Red Mirror [2]
Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bat Family, Dysfunctional Family, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Medical Experimentation, Past Brainwashing, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 48,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1477408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenn0509/pseuds/Jenn0509
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Red was aghast, “How can you encourage her?”</p><p>"Bart shrugged, “I didn’t marry a suburban housewife. It’s usually better just to support her. She’s going to do what she wants either way. Li’s stubborn as a mule.”</p><p>“Yes, she’s stubborn, like her mother, and look where that got Kat, dead in a box in the ground!” Red yelled.</p><p>Lian stared at her father, her chest aching in more than just the pain from her shallow stab wound. “That’s not fair.” She whispered.</p><p>“What’s not fair is my wife struck out on her own and got herself killed, and for some reason our daughter wants to do the same damn thing!” Red yelled, pulling at his hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All Of Me

**Here's the sequel to Red Mirror! So if you haven't read that, back up and read it first!**

**Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me! This chapter is mostly me setting up my little world. Hopefully it all works out! This chapter picks up just a few months after the epilogue to Red Mirror, so Lian is still 19.**

* * *

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Raven chanted.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Lian echoed, sitting cross legged beside her mentor and best friend.

They traded off effortlessly, eyes closed, both in deep concentration. That was until someone started banging on the door. "Please tell me that's not your husband." Raven growled, irritated.

Lian opened one eye, "Bart's smarter than to interrupt us when we're meditating."

Raven sighed, "Garfield."

"Probably!" Lian confirmed with a tiny giggle.

As the knocking resumed, Raven pulled the door open with her powers, "WHAT?"

Garfield stood on the other side of the door, apparently just realizing that he'd angered them both. "Uh, sorry. I can come back later..."

Raven sighed again, storing her patience, "What is it, Gar?"

He grinned, "Breakfast is ready!"

Raven slammed the door closed in his face. Lian chuckled at the older woman, "You're so hard on him."

"Just wait, Lian. It won't take long for Bart to start annoying you too. Marriage does that. I can make my own breakfast." Raven growled.

Lian rolled her eyes, "Relax, Rae. Bart could never annoy me! And I think it's sweet that Gar's been making you breakfast. He's really trying you know. He even asked my dad for help."

"It is sweet, just...too much for me." Raven said, totally giving up on going back to meditating, flopping back on the media room sofa.

Lian stared at her from the coffee table with a look of disapproval, "Too much? Rae, you guys are dating, living together, and it's breakfast time. Go eat with the poor man before he literally starts following you around like a puppy. That's gotten really old, and it's really obvious to everyone else that you to are having trouble in the bedroom again."

Raven glared. "Says the girl who comes to meditate every morning reeking of sex."

Lian shrugged cockily, "What can I say, Bart and I, we get each other. That and we've got our own wing of the mansion, so that makes things nice. Only one who bothers us is Ace."

"Hn." Raven grunted, "You two are odd."

"Yes, we are." Lian agreed, standing up, "This is crash and all, but I'm gonna go see what kind of trouble my man got into last night. He was out on a mission with my father."

"Still bitter about them keeping you here?" Raven asked.

Lian sighed, stretching like a cat, "A little. That's what happens when you're related to half the League though. They all still see me as the little girl that ran around making them smile."

"Well, at least they let you on a team." Raven said, trying to be helpful. Since they were both empaths, she and Lian fed off one another constantly, and the last thing the Tower needed was to have them both be depressed.

It had happened before, and it usually meant that the other Titans were in deep shit. Raven had been with the Titans for six years before Lian and Bart had moved in. Nothing had been the same since. Lian and Bart really were a breath of fresh air. Sexually charged fresh air. They were young to be married, but Raven and Garfield had been dating for years, and she couldn't get over her issues. Part of her wondered just how long Garfield would wait on her.

"True." Lian said, cracking her neck, sensing Raven's quickly souring mood. She changed the subject quickly, "Things have been so slow these last few weeks."

Raven almost smiled. Only Lian would itch for life or death situations, "Well, most of the H.I.V.E. are locked up at the moment, and Slade's gone under the radar. Think of it as a vacation."

"GREETINGS FRIENDS!" Starfire yelled as she entered the tower, making both empaths flinch.

"There went our quite morning." Raven grumbled.

Lian shook her head, a smile on her face, "Let's just hope she didn't bring home any new pets."

The Devil flashed across Raven's face, "I'll kill her."

"Aww, don't do that, then we couldn't have the satisfaction of watching my Uncle Dick freak out about his attraction to the incredibly immature alien who's actually older than ninety-eight percent of the League." Lian said gleefully.

Raven shrugged, "True. That's always amusing."

"Always." Lian confirmed, tossing a t-shirt on over the tank top she'd been meditating in. "Don't leave Garfield waiting for too long, please!" She called as she left the room.

Raven slammed the door shut behind her, dislodging a tiny green bat from above the door.

Lian scooped the creature up gently, "Come on, Gar, she'll come around, I'm sure."

He turned into a puppy and licked her face.

"Should I be jealous?" Bart asked, suddenly standing at the end of the hall.

Lian put Garfield on the ground, telling him to go down to the kitchen and to leave Raven alone for a bit. "Not in the least, babe." Lian told Bart as he grabbed her up in a fierce kiss.

"I missed you." He said, nuzzling her cheek.

Lian smiled, "I'm glad, because I missed you too." Bart pushed her up against the wall, forcing her legs around his waist as he kissed a trail down her neck, "Man, you really did miss me."

Bart laughed against her skin, "Yeah, and let me tell you, it's really awkward when you keep getting hard-ons thinking about your wife while you're out with her father trying to catch bad guys."

Lian gave him an overly sympathetic look, "Poor baby. We'll just have to make that all better now, won't we?"

Raven floated by just in time for the door to their bedroom to slam shut, "Eww."

"You ready for some of B-Boy's tofu eggs?" Cyborg asked loudly from right behind her.

Raven shivered through her rapid increase in heart rate from fear, "I don't eat fake meat."

Cyborg made a face, "Awe, Rae, it's not that bad! And if you wash 'em down with waffles, they're great!"

"And now you're quoting a cereal box." Raven said dryly, "Maybe I should just go back to bed."

He blew a raspberry at her in response. Very mature.

She was still pushing the tofu eggs around on her plate when Bart and Lian made their way to the kitchen an hour later, "What's up, mis amigos!" Bart yelled.

Starfire lit up, "Hello my red-headed Glorfbags!"

Raven resisted the urge to stab her knife through her eye.

"Hey, Star! What's for breakfast?" Bart asked, sliding onto one of the barstools.

Lian leaned over the back of the sofa, stomach in the air, looking up at Terry, who was deeply invested in the video game he and Cyborg were playing. "Any missions?"

The current Robin shook his head, tapping a fist on her forehead fondly, "Nothing so far."

Lian wrinkled her nose, "I'm bored, and if Bart and I stay in our room anymore we're going to kill each other."

"Hey, that's insulting." Bart yelled from his spot at the bar.

Lian laughed, "I love you, but seriously, not all of us have super speed. I'm only human after all."

He laughed flirtatiously, "That's not what you said last week."

"Okay, Bart, let me find a mission to stick you two on before you both make me hurl." Terry growled, handing his game controller to Beast Boy.

Lian pulled herself back into a standing position, an effortless display of her core strength, "Thank God!"

"Don't you usually go bother other people when you're not needed here?" Terry asked his older niece.

"Yeah, but after my last stunt in the Batcave Gramps banned me unless there's someone else there. Bummer." Lian said, leaning over his shoulder as he checked the computer.

"What did you do anyway?" Terry asked.

"I may have rerouted some airplanes...on accident of course. Not what I was intending to do, but Gramps didn't care about that." She told him.

"That's my baby." Bart yelled from the other side of the room.

Lian scoffed, "It was your idea, Gearhead."

"Hey, like you said, I'm the speedy Gearhead, you're the programmer genius." Bart said, shoveling some of the reheated tofu eggs into his mouth. "Nice, BBoy, these are great!"

"Yeah!" Garfield yelled, glad at least one of his young friends liked his tofu. Even Starfire was starting to eat the rest of the fridge and leave the tofu.

Lian, Terry, and Raven wouldn't touch the stuff if the fridge was empty.

It hurt him, it really did, but at least the speedster had his back.

"What's that?" Lian asked, pointing at the screen.

"I don't know." Terry muttered, zooming in on the camera, "You've got yourself a robbery. Police haven't been notified. Looks like the thief is taking his time."

"Goody!" Lian squealed, causing her uncle to flinch.

"Please don't be so happy." Terry asked.

Lian kissed his cheek, trying to cheer him up, "You woke up on the wrong side of the bed, grumpy."

"Yeah, well, Dana cancelled date night again, so I'm either about to get dumped, or she's just really busy." He grumbled.

Lian kissed him again, "Well, maybe Niece Lian needs to have some girl chat with her, because you are way too cute to dump, trust me."

He looked at her doubtfully, "If you say so."

"I say so, and if it gets down to it, I'll totally kick her ass." Lian told him, patting his shoulder as she walked towards the room she and Bart used when they were in the Tower.

"OOH! May I participate in the kicking of the ass?" Starfire yelled.

As the doors whistled shut behind her, Lian heard Raven explaining to Starfire that it was a joke.

Lian wasn't feeling the joke, not really.

She touched the frame of the photo she took with her between the Tower, the Mansion, and the Watchtower. "Happy Birthday, Mom."

That was the real reason she was in the Tower. She couldn't stand to face her family. Bart knew it, and so did Raven and Terry, but they knew better than to say anything. It was easier for her to pretend to be happy when they pretended she was happy. And she was, happy most days, but some days she couldn't keep the ache at bay. Christmas, her birthday, Mother's day, and, always, her mother's birthday.

She and Bart hadn't even had sex, he'd held her while she'd cried hysterically in their room. But they kept up the act. It was easier. She could only cry for so long though, and had pulled Bart from their room so she could find something to beat up on. She was just a little like her grandfather.

"Shit, I'm impersonating Raven." Lian said to herself as she sulked to the weapons room, her suit tight against her skin.

"That's not a bad thing." Raven said, drifting from the shadows behind her.

Lian forced a little laugh, "No offense."

"None taken. You want to talk about it?" Raven asked.

Lian smiled, "Not really. You know me, Raven on the inside, Starfire on the outside. My special kind of screwed up."

Raven snorted, a tiny smile passing quickly over her face, "You don't have near the range to cover me and Star. Anyway, Bart wanted to let you know that you're dad might appreciate a call today."

"Bart would send you." Lian said, pulling her weapons on. "I'll call him tonight."

Raven nodded, "I'm talking to someone, by the way...about...you know."

Lian smiled, "Good, you deserve a chance at being happy."

"Happy." Raven said with a scoff, "You should go if you don't want the party to be over before you get there."

"Yeah, that would suck." Lian said under her breath, sliding her mask on.

"Want me to come?" Raven offered.

Lian shook her had, "Nah, this is my party. Besides, I hardly ever get to do any heavy lifting here with all of you guys. See ya!" She yelled to them all, leaving quickly.

"Really, what idiot breaks into STAR labs?" Lian said to herself, entering the building, checking the downed security guards as she went. All dead. She tapped her comm, activating it, "Hey, guys, this isn't just a smash and grab. I need back up. Standby."

She tapped the comm off, not wanting it to alert anyone to her presence.

The thief was a woman.

"Don't move." She said, pointing an arrow at the woman.

The woman straightened from the drawer she was rifling through. "Let me go, and we won't have to fight." The woman said silkily.

"I can't do that, you're stealing." Lian said, her head aching from the oddness she was sensing from the woman.

"You must have skills to be involved with the Justice League." The woman said, "If you wanted, you could steal too. I almost didn't know you were coming up on me. You breath too loudly though. You're anxious, not collected."

"I don't need someone like you telling me what I am." Lian hissed, squinting her eyes against the pain.

"So you're not going to let me just leave with what I want?"

"No." Lian said honestly, raising the arrow again.

"You're young, so I'm gonna try not to kill you." The woman said.

Lian scoffed, "Who are you?"

There was a split second of stillness, and then the woman was behind her. Lian's head was splitting now that she was closer. Not normal. Not right. Her vision swam, and the woman wrapped her arms around her, "Sorry, little girl. It's just not your day. I like your spunk though, hopefully you live. I'd like to see you all grown up and worth my time."

Lian felt a sharp prick in her ribs and with her next breath, her mouth was filled with foamy blood.

The woman laid her down, almost gently, "I'm going to get what I came for."

Lian watched her rifle through the box again, each breath getting harder and harder to take, the foamy blood trailing out of her mouth and onto the ground.

The woman left, her eyes drifted closed, and then Lian felt hands on her. She knew it was Bart, without even opening her eyes. "Hang in there, Li. I can't lose you, not again. I can't survive this world without you." Lian forced her eyes open, and tried to tell him that she wasn't going to be so easy to get rid of. She couldn't speak though, not with the blood from her punctured lung trying to come back up her throat.

* * *

_"What would I do without your smart mouth?_   
_Drawing me in, and you kicking me out_   
_You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down_   
_What's going on in that beautiful mind_   
_I'm on your magical mystery ride_   
_And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright_

_My head's under water,_   
_But I'm breathing fine._   
_You're crazy and I'm out of my mind._

_'Cause all of me_   
_Loves all of you_   
_Love your curves and all your edges_   
_All your perfect imperfections_   
_Give your all to me_   
_I'll give my all to you_   
_You're my end and my beginning_   
_Even when I lose I'm winning_   
_'Cause I give you all of me_   
_And you give me all of you"_

**All Of Me  
** By: John Legend

* * *

Did you think I was going to start off so fluffy? ;)

Let the theories come on in!

Reviews are welcome, especially so I can tell how many of you guys followed me over!

-Jenn

 


	2. This Is How A Heart Breaks

**Here's chapter two! Forgot to mention that, in my head, Lian is pretty much actress Jane Levy, and older Selina is actress Elizabeth McGovern.**

****

* * *

"Dad, I'm fine." Lian repeated for the hundredth time.

"You could have died, Lian!" Red yelled, continuing to pace across the recovery room floor like he'd been doing since she'd woken up after surgery.

"Yes, but I didn't. I'm going to be released back to the field in a week, so it obviously wasn't that bad." She argued.

Bart pipped up from her side, "Honestly, man, the blood and shit was way worse than it actually was. I mean, barely nicked her lung, more show than actual injury."

Red was aghast, "How can you encourage her?"

Bart shrugged, "I didn't marry a suburban housewife. It's usually better just to support her. She's going to do what she wants either way. Li's stubborn as a mule."

"Yes, she's stubborn, like her mother, and look where that got Kat, dead in a box in the ground!" Red yelled.

Lian stared at him, her chest aching in more than just the pain from her shallow stab wound. "That's not fair." She whispered.

"What's not fair is my wife struck out on her own and got herself killed, and for some reason our daughter wants to do the same damn thing!" Red yelled, pulling at his hair.

Raven was at the door, "Red, you need to leave right now. Lian needs some breathing room." She gestured to Bart, "You too."

Bart kissed Lian's temple, "I'll be right outside once you get your mojo under control, okay? We've got a game of tic-tac-toe we need to finish."

He zipped out the door, followed by Red.

"Thank you." Lian said to her mentor.

Raven nodded, "I could feel you six floors down. Figured you needed some help before you brain blasted them."

Like Raven blowing things up when she was upset, Lian would project her own emotions if things got to be too much, and it was never pretty. When in battle, she could channel that mental stun gun pretty effectively, but when she got upset, all bets were off. When she was ten, she'd put Tim Drake in a coma for a week for jumping out of an air shaft and startling her while she was upset about a test grade. That was why her almost daily meditation sessions with Raven were so important. She had a very fragile hold on her power and Raven knew it. Lian gave a tiny smile, "That bad, huh? Sorry."

"It's alright. Although between you and Starfire, my head is killing me." Raven said, assuming a hovering lotus position, "Let's meditate."

Lian sat up as best as she could, crossing her legs loosely, joining Raven, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Two hours later, Bart knocked gently on the door, pausing them mid 'Zinthos'. "Yes?"

He poked his head inside, "Li, your Grams is here."

"Who told her?" Lian asked with a groan.

Selina pushed through the door, shoving Bart to the side, "You grandfather. Terry called to cancel dinner tonight, and I smelled a rat." She brushed some of Lian's riotous curls out of her face, "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine, really. The blade was short, and if my head hadn't been about to explode because of my own power, I probably would have been able to get her before the whole foam blood thing became an issue." Lian told her honestly. Yes, her chest was aching, but her lung hadn't even collapsed. She'd had worse training injuries.

Selina smiled, "Ah, 'foam blood thing', what an inconvenience. Whoever stabbed you is cruel though, I can say that much."

"What do you mean?" Lian asked, watching Raven phase through the wall.

Selina fussed with her hair again, "I was never one for violence, but I know enough. A puncture lung, Lian, without your little speedster, it would have been much worse. And without your team knowing you were in trouble, you would have been left to a very slow death. That's how she killed the security guards."

"Just how much did you get out of my grandfather?" Lian questioned.

Selina smiled evilly, "Everything. I even got the coroner reports to read on the trip here."

"You're awful." Lian said with a smile.

"I know." Selina agreed, tucking Lian in tighter, "You're looking pale, I'll let you rest."

Lian was exhausted, so she didn't protest. "Okay, let me know if they find anything, won't you?"

Selina nodded, kissing her cheek, "Of course, sweetheart. And if you need anything, just ask. Isis will come find me."

Lian pulled the grey cat up the bed, letting her curl up in her arms. The cat purred happily. Lian was her second favorite human, after all. "Thanks, Grams."

Selina stalked out of the room, a pleased smile on her face.

Lian drifted in and out of sleep for the next few hours.

"The building had a secondary camera system." Dick explained to those gathered around him in the core of the Watchtower. "Whoever she is, she didn't know about it. This is the first time we've gotten cameras on her while she's in action."

Selina judged the holograph critically, "Nice form, quick, slight limp on her left leg."

Dick arched an eyebrow at his adoptive step-mother, "A limp? How can you tell?"

"Don't second guess me, Dick." Selina snapped. He was her least favorite of all her pseudo children. Terry was always the favorite, even if he did have that awful dog.

He made a growling noise that Bruce cut off with his arrival. He eyed his wife curiously, "How did you get here before me?"

"I've got connections." She answered simply.

Bruce resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That would only give her further satisfaction.

"Does no one care that I'm the Batman now? I think I can analyze these tapes on my own." Dick protested.

Starfire was the only one that didn't look pissed by his tantrum, floating around laughing, "Oh, Dick, we shall celebrate your promotion for the next month! Let me sing our song of congratulations, all two hundred verses!"

Selina cringed along with everyone else, "Starfire, dear, not now."

Starfire clamped her mouth shut, nodding. For some reason no one was sure of, she was terrified of Selina. And Selina was never one to let the opportunity for fear to pass her by. In her heart, she was still a villainess.

"That wasn't nice, Selina." Dick chastised.

Selina glared at him, "Boy, don't make me use Bruce's cane to beat you."

He averted his gaze back to the hologram. Even in her sixties, Selina was fierce. She'd hung up her cowl after Kat had died, but she was still known to open a can of whoop ass on people that annoyed her or harassed her cats.

Bruce scowled at her, "Selina."

She went to his side, kissing him gently, "Hello, handsome."

"Who stabbed my granddaughter?" Bruce asked, voice hard, using one hand to force Selina to sit next to him.

Dick shrugged, "No clue. MO is consistent with robberies that have occurred over the last ten years, but there's never been any video until today. Or survivors, actually. As far as I know, Lian's the only person who's seen her."

"Cheshire?" Bart offered.

"No, she's on vacation with Artemis, a truce or something like that." Dick answered.

"Paula wanted to see London." Selina filled in. At the odd look she got from Dick, she shrugged, "What? Paula and I are best friends. We talk." She looked peeved, "That's all I get to do these days. Bruce, hon, can I have a new necklace?"

He shot her serious side eye, "No stealing. You're a reformed convict, remember?"

She sighed, petulantly, "I know." Isis slinked through one of the doors, and Selina was on her feet in an instant, all humor gone, "Lian."

They raced to her room, but Bart got there first. "Lian! Stop! You're gonna hurt yourself!"

She was screaming, eyes wide in terror, fighting against him, trying to get out of the bed. "They won't stop! Make it stop!" She collapsed, sobbing, "It hurts, it hurts so bad."

Bart curled himself around her, eyes wide in fear as he looked at the others, but brushed a hand over Lian's hair soothingly, "It's okay, Li. It was just a nightmare, You're okay. I've got you." Her eyes closed, and she drifted back to sleep.

"What the hell was that?" Dick asked, voicing what everyone else was thinking.

Bart sighed, "Nightmare. She's been having them more and more, ever since we got married. She never remembers them in the morning, but they scare the shit out of me. I haven't been sleeping well because of them."

"No wonder you have begun looking like the ass." Starfire said helpfully.

Bruce was scowling, "You should have said something. We need to have her scanned by Miss Martian or Martian Manhunter."

"You know, you could just say, M'gann and J'onn. She's not a 'Miss' anymore anyway." Selina said, dabbing at Lian's sweat soaked face with a towel.

Bruce's scowl intensified, "Call them."

"On it." Dick said, pulling Starfire with him as he left.

"Did she pull her stitches?" Selina asked.

Bart pulled up the cotton shirt Lian was wearing, exposing her stomach and ribs, freshly marked with a one inch gash. "Looks good." He said, ghosting his fingers over the irritated and swollen skin. He couldn't stand to see her in pain.

Red was standing in the doorway, silently fuming. Bruce turned as his son in law walked away, "Red, where are you going?"

"To find the bitch that stabbed my daughter!" He yelled back, gesturing rudely.

Bart chuckled, "And he blames all the impulsiveness on Kat. He's no better."

Selina smiled fondly, "Ah, to be young again. Sometimes I regret how things ended with Talia. That Lazarus Pit could come in so handy."

Talia had been dead for fifteen years though. She'd gone after Damian, set on 'reclaiming' Damian. Just for that, Selina had been given permission to put her suit back on, and had sent the woman back to her father in pieces. She'd already lost Kat, and she would never let anyone take Damian from her. He was her son, not Talia's.

She pulled out her cellphone, slipping past her husband, "Selina, what are you doing?"

She loved that he still worried about what she was up to even though she'd really been on good behavior since the whole Talia debacle. "Calling our son so Red doesn't get himself killed. That would upset Lian so."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Bruce asked, thinking about all the times Red had tried to strangle Damian.

"I'm his mother, he'll play nice if I ask." She said confidently, calling him. "Mijo?"

She could hear the smile on Damian's voice, "Hola, Mama."

While Lian and Damian met at Chinese places, he met her at Mexican places, and they'd both taken to learning Spanish from the owners of the hole in the wall places they frequented. She dropped the playfulness though, they didn't have time for it, "Darling boy, someone stabbed Lian last night. She's going to be fine, but Red's taken it upon himself to hunt down her attacker. Would you mind keeping an eye on him?"

Damian sighed, "You ask a lot of me, Mama. Protect a man who hates me?"

"Do it for your niece who loves you." Selina countered.

"Okay." Damian agreed. He couldn't deny his mother or Lian anything.

"Thank you, my darling boy." Selina said, far too pleased with herself.

Damian chuckled, "I'm not a boy anymore, Mama."

"You'll be a boy until you give me more grandchildren, so it's your own fault." Selina snapped back playfully.

Damian packed up his stuff and continued to try to reason with his mother about why he couldn't date as a homeless avenger. Her response was that he wasn't homeless, using all of her old apartments, and that he wasn't getting any younger. "Alright, Mama. Enough. I've got to go do some work for some woman who thinks it's a good idea for me to risk my neck for the sake of some curly haired ginger girl."

Selina laughed, "I love you, Mijo."

"Love you too, Mama." He replied, hanging up the phone and searching out Red. It wasn't a hard task, he had embedded trackers in all of his family members, even Red. He was his niece's father after all.

He kept his distance, weaving through Gotham, watching as Red asked old drug connections about the mysterious woman. Because of the link his mother had given him to the Watchtower, he heard when Dick relayed a sighting to Red.

The woman was there too. Red watched from afar, and finally outed Damian, "I know you're there. You might as well make yourself useful and help me come up with a plan. We don't know a lot about her style, after all." Damian crouched next to Red, and they watched the woman empty a safety security box like she was grocery shopping.

"Well, she's very focused." Damian observed, "Knows exactly what she's going after and doesn't care who gets in her way."

"That's what Selina said. Lian's lucky to be alive." Red growled.

"Mom said Li was fine." Damian replied.

Red was not so sure. He kept his mouth shut though. The woman may be focused, but if they started fighting each other, she'd know they were there and be gone.

They attacked from both sides, but she was hardly phased, expertly defending herself from them as she got what she came for.

In a last ditch effort, Red grabbed at her blonde hair. It came with him when she kicked him away, mask and all.

He felt like she'd stabbed him. He actually wished she had. It would have hurt less.

In place of the blonde, long black curls tumbled down across her shoulders, framing a face that was in his dreams every night. Impossibly blue eyes, full lips, and pale unblemished skin.

"Kat." He said softly, her name rolling of his tongue in disbelief.

On her other side, Damian was frozen as well.

She looked confused, narrowing her crystal blue eyes at them for a second before tearing away, taking advantage of their odd stunned stillness.

Belatedly, they chased after her, but she lost them easily in the subway system three blocks over, slipping through their hands and into the darkness. "Did you see her?" Red asked, wheezing next to Damian.

Damian nodded, jaw clenched, looking far too much like his father, "I saw her. But she didn't see us, not really. A clone?"

Red shrugged, holding out his hand, "We'll find out."

Damian grinned at the strands of black hair in Red's grip, "Nice." He faltered, "She didn't recognize us. Not at all."

"No, she didn't." Red confirmed.

"What the hell are we going to do if that's not a clone?" Damian asked.

Red closed his eyes, "Shit, I don't know, Damian. I really don't know."

"Let's go. We found her once, we can find her again." Damian said.

Red nodded, "You're right. But, Damian. I don't want Lian to know." His brother in law frowned at him, "This is gonna hurt us enough either way. I don't want Lian to have to go through any of this. I don't want to go through this."

Against his better judgment, Damian promised to lie to the only person who'd cared for him unfailingly and without any desire for payment. His mother loved him now, as he loved her, but he would never forget that it had been Kat who had raised him, or the hateful glares Selina had given him as a child. He couldn't decide what outcome would hurt more, if she was real and had forgotten them, or if she was an evil clone they'd have to put down.

Red couldn't either.

* * *

_"Life is like a mean machine_  
 _It made a mess outta me_  
 _It left me caught between_  
 _Like an angry dream I was stranded, I was stranded_

_And I'm steady but I'm starting to shake_  
 _And I don't know how much more I can take_

_This is it now_  
 _Everybody get down_  
 _This is all I can take_  
 _This is how a heart breaks_  
 _You take a hit now you feel it break down_  
 _Make you stay wide awake_  
 _This is how a heart breaks_

_Don't you wanna go for a ride_  
 _Down to the other side_  
 _Feels so good you could cry_  
 _Now won't you do what I told you_  
 _I remember when you used to be shy_  
 _Yeah, once we were so fine_  
 _You and I why you gotta make it so hard on me_

_And I'm sorry but it's not a mistake_  
 _And I'm running but you're getting away"_

**This is How A Heart Breaks  
** By: Rob Thomas

* * *

Thanks so much to Mangakoibito for sticking with me! Let me know what you guys think about this one!

-Jenn


	3. Love Don't Die

Sorry for the lag there! I was busy with end of the year school stuff and planning out the rest of this story. So far I've got about thirteen more chapters planned and that's just through this first arc! Anyway! Here's Chapter 3!

* * *

**Love Don't Die:**

"I swear it was her." Damian cried, feeling like a teenager again.

Selina was distraught, "Damian, your sister is dead. You couldn't have seen her." She turned to Dick, "Test them for hallucinogens, won't you?" She was in full mother bear mode, and most of the Leaguers were totally unused to that level of ferocity in Selina. Damian was thirty four, but he may as well have been ten the way she was fussing over him.

"Mom, leave me alone! I'm not crazy!" Damian yelled, trying to shove her off.

She may have retired from the field after killing his other biological mother, but she was still strong for her age, and kept her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. The only way he could free himself from her grip would be to hurt her. Selina stroked his short black hair like he was one of her cats, "Calm down, and let M'gann look."

Red was struggling against J'onn. "I know what my own damn wife looks like!"

"It's been years, wishful thinking, Red." Bruce snapped harshly, pinning him down.

"Wishful thinking? Do you think I would risk changing my daughter's whole life for wishful thinking?" Red yelled, glaring at Bruce hatefully. "Lian is the only good thing I've got in my life right now, and I won't ruin her for some wishful thinking. She's had a hard enough life without all this."

"We aren't telling Lian." Bruce said instantly.

Red stilled, scowl still in place, "At least we agree on something." He shook J'onn off, looking over at his younger brother-in-law, "Damian, give it a rest. Let her look. Maybe we did imagine it, all I know is we need to find out." He gave Damian a double take, "Dude, do you have gel in your hair?"

Damian glared, "Really, now you notice? Ass."

Selina hissed softly, "Oh, honey, did you have a date?"

He blushed, "No!"

Red narrowed his eyes, "You still can't lie to me, you little shit. When we've got all this done, we're so talking."

"Dude," Damian began mockingly, "I'm thirty four, you don't get to try to pseudo parent anymore, especially now."

Selina was teary eyed, "You had a date? I interrupted you on your way to a date? I'm sorry!"

Damian hugged his mother, rolling his eyes at her dramatics. She was doing what Red was doing, trying to distract from Kat. He ran a hand down her graying brown hair, "It's okay, Mom. I'm glad I went. Someone had to be there to stop Red here from getting his ass kicked by that woman."

"What he saw is true. Identity confirmation, Helena Katherine Wayne-Harper." J'onn said, apparently having finished his scan of Red's mind.

M'gann nodded, "Same here."

"So they weren't seeing things." Bruce said slowly.

Selina took in a ragged breath, rubbing her hands on her shoulders, "So that could be Kat. She really could be alive."

"Don't get your hopes up." Bruce growled, not looking at the crushed expression on her face. That was how they worked, he didn't coddle her. "She could still be a clone or be under an illusion spell."

Dick nodded, "I'll compare DNA, but if you want me to check for cloning, I'm gonna need more of a sample."

"We need to track her down." Red said softly.

"Let's get started." Selina said, shaking off her anxiety.

Bart came inside the room, and Dick blanked the screen. "Lian's not looking so great."

"What?" Red exclaimed, grabbing the front of Bart's shirt.

Bart shook him off, "She's kind of feverish. More nightmares. She was complaining about being nauseated earlier."

"Did you get my daughter pregnant?" Red growled.

Bart rolled his eyes, "No, you ass. We're careful. Lian says she wants at least five years before kids. I'm totally fine with that. Pretty sure she's got an infection or something. Unfortunately, the best I can do is sew up battle wounds. Past that, I'm useless in the medical department."

"I'll take a look." M'gann said, smiling at Red, "She's not pregnant, Red. My uncle and I would know and she wouldn't be on missions. Actually, with her powers, we'd all know. Lian's control is tenuous at best. The hormone fluctuation would probably affect the strength of her power vastly."

"Says the woman who used to lobotomize people!" Bart snapped. "Lian's control is just fine."

M'gann scowled, an ashamed blush coloring her green features. "I'll go check on her."

Bart followed.

Lian was feverish. M'gann touched her and instantly pulled her hand back, wincing, "She's got an infection, and that tenuous control is weakening. Her body will naturally fight the infection off in a few hours, but I'll need to stay with her until Raven can return from the Titans to watch her. Otherwise, we'll all be in her nightmares."

Bart chuckled, "She plays her power down, but my girl's got something kick-ass, doesn't she?"

M'gann nodded, "Probably the strongest human empath I've ever seen. She could develop it into something more if she really wanted to. She's shown very little interest in Raven's training though."

"That's what happens when you grow up in a house full of powerless heroes. Bruce, he doesn't like relying on his super-powered peers, between him and Red, it's a miracle she's learned as much control as she has." Bart said, brushing Lian's red curls from her damp face.

She opened her eyes at his touch, whispering, "Hey."

He smiled, "Hey yourself, Princess. How you feeling?"

"Like shit." She said hoarsely. "Where's my dad?"

"He was just in the command center talking to Damian." Bart said, wishing he'd kept is mouth shut when her eyes widened.

"Uncle Damian's here? Where? Why hasn't he come to see me?" Lian asked in a rush.

Bart pushed her back down when she tried to sit, "He did. You were asleep. He's leaving soon, but I'm sure he'll be back to check up on you when you're more up for company." He hoped she didn't sense the lie. He didn't know why Damian was on the Watchtower without coming to see Lian, but he'd find out.

Lian nodded, eyelids heavy again, "Okay. Love you."

Bart grinned, kissing her forehead, "Love you too, Li." When she was asleep, he narrowed his eyes at M'gann, "Alright, Martian, spill. Why's Damian here, and why is Red not killing him?"

"I can't tell you." M'gann said stonily, imitating her uncle's favorite expression.

"Bullshit." Bart hissed, "Why the hell not? I'm the Flash these days, or has everyone failed to notice?"

"Because you'll tell her. You won't mean to, but you will. Your mind is closer to Lian's than anyone else's. She might not know how to intentionally, but she'd read it from your mind if you so much as stressed over it an instant in her presence. She loves you, and that's a weakness here." M'gann explained.

"So I'm in the dark about something that would upset me. How the hell am I not going to be stressing about that?" Bart groaned, rubbing his face.

M'gann was stoic, "You'll lie to her, or forget about it. Your choice."

He sighed, "Well, let's make small talk then. How're the kids?"

M'gann smiled, "All growing like little weeds!" She gushed for hours about the kids she and Conner were raising on the Kent farm. They weren't theirs biologically, but that didn't matter, Bart had never seen more devoted parents.

Meanwhile, Red, Damian, and J'onn had suited up to go after the woman. "Try not to hurt her." Bruce said roughly.

"You think we'd hurt her?" Damian asked, "We're more likely to hurt each other. Talk to J'onn about hurting her if you're that worried."

"Damian." Selina scolded.

"Mother." He snapped back, earning a cuff on the back of the head from his father.

"Speak to your mother like that again and I'll show you just how in shape I still am." Bruce growled, taking Selina's hand in his. "You should go home, get some rest."

She shook her head, "No, I want to be here. I need to be here." She pulled away from him and pulled Damian back into her arms, "Be careful, baby boy. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too."

Damian breathed in her familiar scent. "I'm sorry, Mom."

Selina laughed softly, "Water under the bridge, Damian. You're upset, and I was a convenient target. It's okay, I'm upset too."

He gently shook off her embrace so he could look her in the eyes, "Doesn't excuse my behavior. I love you." The way she smiled at him was all he needed to see to know just how much she loved him. As a child, he'd have killed to see her look at him like that. It was a tragedy that it had been Kat's death that had brought them together.

But what if she wasn't really dead? He pushed the thoughts down, wary of the look J'onn shot his way as they headed out.

It took them hours to find her, but one of the chemicals she'd stolen left a very faint trail, so really, they just followed it.

She'd changed clothes, looking more like the Kat they remembered. "Why are you following me?" She asked after they'd followed her for several blocks.

"You need to come with us." J'onn said evenly.

She sneered, "I don't think so, green-man."

Damian and Red headed her off. "You don't have a choice."

"The hell I don't!" She yelled in protest, hitting Damian, hard. He crumpled.

"That was not a request." J'onn said as he came behind her and rendered her unconscious. When they returned to the Watchtower, Dick took a blood sample from her and ran off to his lab.

Red watched through one way glass as she woke up.

"You shouldn't go in there." Bruce said firmly when Red put his hand on the door knob.

Red growled at his father in law, "Why the hell not? She's my wife!"

"You hope. There's every likelihood that she's a clone or it's an illusion." Bruce said for what had to have been the hundredth time.

"There's no magic there." Zatanna said from where she'd been staring into the room for the last half hour.

"Nothing?" Red said, hope in his voice.

"Nothing." Zatanna confirmed, an uneasy smile on her pale face, "Still, that doesn't mean she's not a clone."

Red walked into the room where they'd tied her up. "Kat?"

She stared stonily at the door, "I believe I have the right to a phone call."

She had an odd accent, and it startled him. She sounded like Talia.

He found his voice after her cold eyes continued to stare at him, "No phone call here."

"Then I'm not talking."

He sighed, "I wish you would, Kat."

She wrinkled her nose, "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Because it's your name." He said softly.

"My name is Mina." She replied, not sure why she'd told him that. He just seemed so familiar. "What's your name?" She asked before she could stop herself.

"Red." He answered, chest clenching.

"Red." She echoed, trying to place his face. She was usually very good with faces. Her curiosity got the better of her, "How's the little one? With the red curls."

Red perked up. She was asking about Lian. "Better. The knife wound got infected, but she's a fighter. You could have killed her."

"I know." She said easily. "I could have, but I didn't. Is that why you tracked me down like an animal?"

"Partially." Red admitted. "You look exactly like my wife."

She scoffed, "My only husband has been dead for five years now. I think I'd remember being married more than once."

"I think there's a lot of things you've forgotten."

She jerked against her restraints, "Let me go."

"No."

"Well then at least free one of my hands, my leg's aching like a bitch." She bemoaned.

Red stared at her oddly. "Your leg?" She nodded, eyes hard. He sank to his knees in front of her.

"Hey, stop that!" She cried when he started pushing up the left leg of her yoga pants. How had he known which leg?

There was a scar, deep, still slightly redder than the rest of her skin, right where one of the wounds that had killed her had been.

Red ran his fingers over it, eyes wide, "Oh, Kat."

She ignored the tingling of her skin at his touch. This man was some kind of sick pervert, his touch shouldn't feel good. "Get off me, you psycho. I'm not this Kat you're so crazy about."

J'onn came in and hauled Red out of the room, "You were told to wait."

"Yeah, well I've never been too great at following orders, especially when they concern Kat." Red snapped harshly.

"We don't know if that's really Kat." Bruce said from his corner, looking weary. "Dick's checking with the sample he collected when she got here. We'll know soon enough."

"I don't need a test to tell me what I already know. That's my wife!" Red yelled.

Selina was holding herself up against the wall, "Red. Enough." He stared at the woman, and she shakily sat down, "I feel it too, you know? Every fiber in my body is telling me that that's my daughter, but, Red, what if she's not? What if this is some kind of elaborate trap or distraction? We have to know for sure or we'll never be able to trust ourselves around her."

Red nodded. "You're right."

A cocky half smile pulled onto her face, "I'm always right."

"Think she's hungry?" Red asked.

Selina shrugged, "Probably, but let her ask."

"Why?"

"Because then she'll be a whole lot more appreciative." Selina drawled.

Red shook his head, "Punishment for hitting Damian?"

"Of course." Selina said, stroking a still unconscious Damian's hair, "I never did let them fight each other, I'm not going to start now."

* * *

_"If I know one thing, that's true_   
_It ain't what you say, it's what you do_   
_And you don't say much, yeah, that's true_   
_But I listen when you do_

_A thousand years go by_   
_But love don't die_

_If I know one thing, that's true_   
_It's that I'm never leaving you_   
_And you don't say much, yeah, that's true_   
_But I lose it when you do_

_Don't let them tell no lie_   
_Love don't die_

_No matter where we go_   
_Or even if we don't_   
_And even if they try_   
_They'll never take my body from your side_   
_Love don't die"_

**Love Don't Die**

**By: The Fray**

* * *

Hope you guys enjoyed! The next chapter is totally finished already! I'll post it after I get some feedback from this one! Keep in mind, next chapter, all your questions will be answered! Not gonna lie, the next chapter is kind of rough emotionally, but it's necessary, We're gonna find out exactly what Lian's been having those nightmares about. (Next chapter song is Whisper by Evanescence if you want to take a listen!)

Comments and Kudos welcome!

-Jenn


	4. Whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter has some pretty strong themes in it, so if those sorts of things bother you, just skip to the bar line and get ready for the next chapter.
> 
> WARNINGS: Kidnapping, Non-Con, Stockholm Syndrome, and multiple forms of torture.
> 
> It's not pretty, but it had to be that way to make a woman like Kat totally forget her family. What I've written below is based off research I did on how to brainwash someone. It takes a long time, folks, that's all I'll say. She's been at the mercy of these people for almost two decades, so they've had a lot of time to warp her personality.

**Whisper: Seventeen Years Ago**

Queen Bee stared down at the coffin her men were uncovering, "We need to hurry. She won't wait on us forever."

"What about the cops? Or the owners of that big ol' house?" One asked.

"I can handle them all. She's what's important." Queen Bee snapped.

"Some dead girl?" Another queried.

Queen Bee smiled, whispering to herself, "She's not dead anymore." Before ordering, "Open the coffin."

The men did what she asked, and a loud gasp echoed through the dim cemetery. "What the hell?"

Queen Bee knelt at the edge of the hole, "Hello again, Kat. I hope your nap wasn't too hard. It's difficult to get reliable help these days. Especially help that's proficient with a shovel." She gestured to one man, "Get her out, and be careful. She's regrown quite a lot of flesh in the last few days."

Tear reddened blue eyes stared up at her. A hoarse voice asked, "What happened?"

Zazzala smiled, "Oh, Kat, you died. Don't worry though, we're going to make you all better." The girl was in a pitiful state. She'd been alert longer than Zazzala had feared. She'd had time to try to claw her way out of her own grave, and was covered in blood from torn nails that were only just knitting themselves back together.

"Lian." Katherine whispered, the sudden rush of oxygen dazing her. Hyperventilating, he lashed out at one of the men, but missed terribly.

Zazzala tutted, "You don't need to worry about her anymore. Soon, you won't even remember her." The men lifted her out of the coffin, and the dress she'd been buried in edged up her thigh, exposing a strip of scar tissue where her almost severed leg hadn't quite healed up right because her body had been too exhausted to smooth out the regenerating flesh. "Oh, that's a sad sight. A limitation of your incredible regeneration ability. Your doctors will need to know that. We don't want them to scar your pretty face."

They let her rest the first night, but then a man came in, covered in all white. "Get up, filthy little bitch."

That's what they called her for the next five years. She didn't eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom unless they commanded it of her. She'd lost frightening amounts of weight. She'd been thin her whole life, but she'd never ever been so skeletal. Her muscles atrophied so she was weaker than a newborn kitten. She stopped fighting every man she could get her fingers in. She didn't have the strength. She still fought, but only after careful planning. She always failed. They dragged her around by her hair so much, she wanted to chop it all off. She'd had the opportunity a few times, but the thought of how much Red loved her long hair made her stop. She'd slit her throat instead. When she woke up the second attempt, she was chained back to her bed, "God, just let me die!"

"You are nothing, you have nothing, you are no better than dirt." Was the response.

If she cried, the masked men would cut her, and she'd watch the flesh knit back together. When she tried to fight them and got free of her bindings, they'd gut her. By the time she woke from the blood-loss, her body was always finished healing.

The gas was the worst though. It would fill her tiny room and she'd hear those words, "You are nothing, you have nothing, you are no better than dirt." over and over through the speakers as hallucinations racked her, each more terrifying than the last.

Always her family, always watching them die, over and over.

In her dreams, she saw Red, whole and happy, like she was sitting down looking up at him. They would always jolt her awake from those dreams, like they knew what she was dreaming about.

Once she stopped thinking of her family, things got easier, "I am nothing, I have nothing, I am no better than dirt."

"Good little bitch, you can eat out of my hand today." Her captor told her. At one time, she'd known his name, but that memory was long gone.

Months later, and she knew his name.

Jonathan Crane, and he loved her. She was his wife, Mina, and she lived to serve him.

They'd given her the fear gas again, pinned her to the floor by her wrists while her head was filled with images of people she couldn't remember. "They won't stop! Make it stop!" She cried, sobbing, "It hurts, it hurts so bad."

Crane had come in then, and knelt beside her, a clear mask on so at last she could see his face at last, "There, there, Kitten. If you're a good girl, all of this will go away. We can get you some pretty dresses, and you can start eating real food again. How does that sound? Do you want to be a good girl?"

"Yes." She whispered, voice hoarse from screaming. "Yes! I want to be a good girl! Just make it stop!"

They'd finally broken her.

Crane nodded, pulling the knives out of her wrists, watching the blood smear over her bare skin, "You are lovely, Kitten." He fingered some of her long hair, grunting in disapproval at the blood clotting in it. "You've made a mess of yourself. Oh, and look at the floor, such a mess." He shoved her away, "Clean it up."

Stunned still in confusion, he hit her, "Lick it up, little kitten. You wanted to be a good girl, remember?"

"Yes." She repeated.

He slapped her again, "Yes, Sir. From now on, Kitten."

She sniffed back tears. She'd learned a long time ago that they did nothing to help her. "Yes, Sir." With nothing to clean with, she knelt on the ground and licked up the blood.

"Good girl." He said, the praise doing odd things to her head. The blood made her nauseated, and the moment he left her alone, she threw it all up.

He'd come back in instantly, holding her hair back, "Poor little Kitten. Looks like you're sick. Don't worry, we'll help you."

Being sick was much worse than the previous torture. They moved her to a room resembling a hospital room, and strapped her to the bed as they force fed her the blood and bile she'd vomited through a tube they jammed down her throat. It took three times before it all stayed down. She'd never wanted it to all end so badly.

"You should have been a good girl." Crane chastised her as she lay sweating and shaking from the effort not to be sick. "I told you to clean it up, and you made an even bigger mess. You're not going to be so messy anymore, are you?"

"No, Sir." She answered, jaw trembling.

Crane leaned close, and she expected him to hit her, but instead, he pressed a kiss to her cheek, "Very good, Kitten."

The next move she made was to his rooms, as his wife.

The first time he touched her with his intent evident, she closed her eyes and turned her head. He grabbed her chin, "Don't close your eyes, Kitten." He stood, leaving her alone on the bed, "I'll turn the lights off, I don't want to scare you."

"No, Sir!" She yelled in protest. He looked at her sharply, a look that usually meant she was going to be beaten for her insolence. She stuttered to save herself, "Please, come back. Just, don't turn the lights off, please. Please, leave the lights on."

He grinned, "Good girl, if you want the lights on, we'll have them on, whatever makes this most comfortable for you. It's been so long after all."

When he touched her again, she really was broken.

She didn't enjoy sex with him. He was too boney, too...something she couldn't put her finger on. Sometimes, he'd turn the lights off before sex, and she'd have these excruciating images in her head of sex with some man she couldn't name. Those images were better than what she was getting with Crane, but that only made it hurt worse. She wanted something she couldn't have. She'd rather the images left her alone. She was Crane's wife, she shouldn't have thoughts of another man. She tried to get them to go away. She learned quickly not to refuse Crane though, even when he turned the lights off. Refusal earned her a week of being tortured awake in her first room before they took her back to Crane and he had his way with her exhausted body anyway. Once she stopped subconsciously fighting him, things got better. The images started going away. The other man disappeared, and all that was left was Crane.

One day, he was stroking her hair as she rest her head against his leg. His gentleness was rare. And it had been so long since he'd used the gas on her. Maybe she was finally pleasing him. He spoke softly, hand continuously moving. "You had a child. Do you remember?" If he said she had, then it must have been true, so she nodded. Vaguely, she remembered being pregnant, feeling her child move inside of her, the odd mixture of joy and trepidation. Crane smiled at her, and she lived for it. "She was a little thing. Pretty and dark haired, like you. She was ours."

"Ours?" Kat asked, wincing. She wasn't supposed to talk without permission.

His hand didn't stop. She hadn't angered him with her speech. "Ours." He confirmed. "You let her die."

"Me?" Kat echoed, lifting her head from his leg to look at his face, tiny red curls flitting through her mind.

He stroked the side of her face, "It's okay. I've been helping you. You were so distraught by her death that you lost your mind. I've been trying to get you back for so long. Do you feel safe, precious one?"

"Yes." She answered instantly, her head trying to supply images of her supposed daughter, "Can I see her? A picture? I can't remember what she looks like."

He smiled again, "Of course." He showed her a picture of a little girl, "Her name was Elise."

"Elise Crane?" Kat pondered, taking the photo slowly from his hand. The child in it was dark haired, like both of them, but nothing like the red curls in her head. She knew better than to question him though, and took to memorizing every one of the child's features, "What happened to her?"

"You weren't strong enough to protect her. The Justice League, they killed her because they saw how happy we were." He whispered into her ear. "They have to pay."

"They have to pay." Kat echoed, looking into his eyes, picture pressed to her chest, "But I wasn't strong enough before."

Another pleasant stroke, "I know, Kitten, but my friends, they're going to make you strong again, if you let them."

"Anything." She said softly, "If they killed our daughter, they need to pay. I need to help."

He beamed at her, "They told me you weren't ready, but I knew you were. You've been so good, Kitten."

The League of Shadows took her then.

Instead of flesh tearing, it was muscles being rebuilt, and bruises constantly littered her tanning skin. Many of the members avoided her, and she had no idea why. Sometimes, the whispered name 'Talia' would reach her, but she rarely gave it any thought. Under the tutelage of the League of Shadows, she grew strong. They gave her some protection too, when Crane came to visit, he was not allowed to bring his fear gas or to strike her. She finally had power over him, and she loved it because she didn't love him. Perhaps the loss of their child had killed any love she'd once felt for him, but when her friend Barsad came to tell her that Crane was dead, she couldn't have cared less. They started letting her go on missions, and sometimes, if she'd gone a while without offending anyone, they'd let her go out on her own. She lived for those days, when she'd be able to don normal clothes and wander the city.

"Raven, over here!" A young female yelled.

The voice shouldn't have caused her a second glance, but it did. A teenaged girl with bright red curls was waving above the crowd where she'd perched herself on top of a stack of crates. A dark haired girl moved to the bottom of the stack, scowling, "Get down from there. You're fourteen, not four."

The red head appeared not to hear her friend, "Raven, just look at all of this! It's beautiful!"

The dark one scowled, "Yes, the desert markets are beautiful, but get down! We've got things to do. Don't make me get you down myself, Lian." Kat's heart jumped at the name Lian. It didn't make sense. Her daughter's name was Elise, Crane had told her so. Head spinning in confusion, she ran back to her home.

A few years later, she saw the girl again. She was almost grown by then, walking hand and hand with a boy through the streets of Gotham. Kat couldn't resist following them, for hours, back to a large mansion on the outskirts of town.

Over the next few years, any time she was near Gotham, she'd return to that house. And one day, the red head went into the empty house with her man, dressed in all white. From her spot in one of the trees, Kat fell asleep, into her nightmares, jolting awake when a scream echoed from the house. Standing in the shadows, she watched for several more minutes, seeing a flash of white in what she'd realized was the kitchen window. Lian was standing there, searching the darkness for something, a hand on the head of the massive puppy that often roamed the grounds.

Kat drew farther back into the shadows where she was certain the blue eyed child couldn't see her. She forced herself away from Gotham after that, and didn't see those red curls until one night as she stole from STAR labs.

"Don't move." The girl said, pointing an arrow at her, form perfect.

Kat paused, not looking, "Let me go, and we won't have to fight." She said silkily.

"I can't do that, you're stealing." The girl said.

"You must have skills to be involved with the Justice League." Kat said, surprised that she hadn't noticed before that the red headed girl she was uncontrollably obsessed with was part of the Justice League. She could tell it was her by the curls though, they were unmistakable, even if her pretty face was covered. Kat held an olive branch to the girl in her mind. "If you wanted, you could steal too. I almost didn't know you were coming up on me. You breathe too loudly though. You're anxious, not collected."

"I don't need someone like you telling me what I am." She hissed.

"So you're not going to let me just leave with what I want?"

"No." The girl said firmly.

"You're young, so I'm gonna try not to kill you." Kat said, knowing as she spoke that she could never hurt the girl with red curls.

The girl, Lian, scoffed, "Who are you?"

Kat was behind her in an instant, arms wrapped around her in a mockery of a hug. Lian struggled, but her movements were distracted, disjointed, and hardly effective against someone like Kat. "Sorry, little girl. It's just not your day. I like your spunk though, hopefully you live. I'd like to see you all grown up and worth my time." As she slid the short blade between the girl's ribs, she made sure not to do too much damage. She was with the League, they'd be there soon to help her, Kat just needed her out of the way.

"I'm going to get what I came for." Kat whispered as she lay the girl gently down, blue eyes watching her every movement as Lian started foaming at the mouth. Kat wanted to stay, to hold the girl, to soothe her panic, but she couldn't. She grabbed what she needed and left, trying to put the red curls out of her mind.

It wasn't that easy though. Not at all. When the red haired man ripped her mask from her face a night later, she knew her days of going under the radar were over, and red haunted her dreams again.

* * *

**Present:**

"The DNA matches up perfectly. This woman is Kat. There's no sign of cloning." Dick said slowly.

"It's impossible." Bruce snapped, "We buried her. Seventeen years ago."

Selina rubbed his shoulders, trying to keep the both of them calm as she said, "That's right. We  _buried_  her. We  _buried_ our daughter. We need to see for ourselves."

"No." Red answered instantly.

Selina set her jaw, like he'd seen Kat do so many times before, Lian too, "Yes, Red, we need to know. If that's really my daughter, I want to know."

That's what found the small group standing over Kat's grave three days after her forty-third birthday. The men that had been called to exhume the coffin of Bruce Wayne's dead daughter were confused, but did what they were told.

Selina cried out when they opened the coffin, turning into Bruce's side, clutching his pressed suit. "Oh my God!"

The coffin was empty, just as she'd feared and hoped, but she hadn't been prepared to see the inside stained with streaks of old blood, the satin shredded.

Red knelt next to the coffin, touching a hand to the blood, face white in shock, "She did wake up. We buried her and she wasn't really dead. We should have waited."

Bruce was still, "Obviously she woke up in the coffin, tried to claw her way out. We had no way of knowing she would wake up. She wasn't healing. She was dead."

Red stood, carding a hand through his hair as he turned away. He couldn't look any more. "Yeah, well, someone knew it would take more to kill her, and they dug her up."

"Who?" Selina asked softly, although she knew the answer. They all did.

Bruce held her tight, trying to keep images of a terrified Kat suffocating in her own coffin out of his head as he said, "Who else? The Light."

* * *

_"Catch me as I fall_   
_Say you're here and it's all over now_   
_Speaking to the atmosphere_   
_No one's here and I fall into myself_   
_This truth drives me_   
_Into madness_   
_I know I can stop the pain_   
_If I will it all away_   
_If i will it all away_

_[Chorus:]_   
_Don't turn away_   
_(Don't give in to the pain)_   
_Don't try to hide_   
_(Though they're screaming your name)_   
_Don't close your eyes_   
_(God knows what lies behind them)_   
_Don't turn out the light_   
_(Never sleep never die)_

_I'm frightened by what I see_   
_But somehow I know_   
_That there's much more to come_   
_Immobilized by my fear_   
_And soon to be_   
_Blinded by tears_   
_I can stop the pain_   
_If I will it all away_   
_If i will it all away"_

**Whisper  
By: Evanescence**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys are still with me! If you looked close enough, you'll see some evidence of where Lian's getting her nightmares from. Keep in mind what she said about being connected to her family members, she was able to track Damian down using her power after all!
> 
> Anyway, next chapter, Lian's curiosity gets the best of her again! She's not at all like her parents, is she? Oohh, and it's already written! I'm on a roll! Hello summer vacation!
> 
> Comments & Kudos please!
> 
> -Jenn


	5. Human

Back to Lian and the present!

* * *

**Human:**

Lian stretched slowly, basically a hodgepodge of yoga and every other warm up she'd ever been taught. Muscles screamed in protest all along her side, but the pain didn't race through her and she could still breathe, so she took those as good signs and kept moving. Bart was glaring at her from where she'd tied him down. He could get out if he wanted, but they both knew he wouldn't, as long as she didn't wince too much. Lian cast a glance over to him, amused by his glare, "Babe, stop looking at me like that. You just had to try to stop me."

"You just got released from bed rest an hour ago." He growled out.

"I know." She said, still weakened by the fever that had only just left her.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Bart moaned.

Lian settled herself astride his lap, eyes as fiery as her hair, "Oh stop it, you love that about me. One of my best qualities." She kissed his jaw, "That and I'm a great kisser."

He chuckled, far too pleased by the sudden turn of events, "Very true."

She kissed behind one of his ears, rendering him a pile of red and yellow goo, "Good. I'm done with all that for today, but I want to get some target practice in. You game?"

Bart let out a half strangled laugh, "Oh, babe, at this point, I'm game for anything you want to do."

Lian smiled at her easy victory, "So if I untie you are you going to stop driving me up the wall in all the wrong ways?" He nodded into another kiss, "Alright, Gearhead. Let's go make sure I'm still one of the best sharpshooters in this place. Grandpa be damned."

Bart followed her closely, "When are we going back to the Titans?"

Lian frowned at his question, "I don't know. You're based out of the Watchtower anyway, and they haven't needed me down there at all so far. What's the hurry?"

"No hurry, just miss playing Vid-games with the guys." He said.

She nodded, "Yeah, I've missed Rae, but I'm not leaving until my Grams does. She never spends so much time up here, and Isis has been following me everywhere."

Bart was amazed that she had focused on her grandmother and not on his blatant lie. "I haven't noticed Isis."

Lian gestured to the ceiling, and he blanched. Isis was walking along the exposed pipes of the sprinkler system, perfectly balanced on one inch pipe. "Was settled on the lip of an air vent in the gym." She whistled and the cat dropped into her arms. Lian stroked behind the cat's ears, "What are you up to, you crazy thing? Is my Grams having you follow me again? Where is she anyway?" Cat propped on her uninjured side, Lian checked her phone, "Raven said she'd be up here to see me again today."

"Must be busy." Bart commented, sharing a far too cognizant look with the cat. Really, the cat was freaky, and he knew at least thirty years old. Way freaky, but then again, Selina could be her own brand of freaky. It lurked right behind the overtly mothering affect she often had, but if you looked close enough, it was there. She, Damian, Bruce, and Red had been gone all afternoon. He'd been trying to keep Lian from noticing.

Lian shrugged, "Raven's never let me go so long without meditating with her. It's just odd."

"Maybe she's happy with your progress?" Bart offered.

Lian glared at him skeptically, "Progress? I'm virtually a crippled empath, Bart. It's all I can do to stay in my own head. Raven's just the empath that doesn't have better things to do than to mind me. Except for taking care of her own issues that is."

"Issues?" Bart asked, slipping Lian's phone back into the pocket of her shorts and taking her freed hand in his, waving at Virgil as they walked past him.

Lian's anxiety played across her face at the close quarter contact, but she shook it off, focusing on Bart and his hand in hers, "Yeah, Raven's got a serious case of genophobia."

Bart frowned, "Geno-what?"

Lian shook her head, pulling him to a stop outside the door to the practice range. "Nothing, never mind. It's girl-talk anyway. Do you hear that?"

He listened carefully, but didn't hear anything, "No, I don't."

Frowning, she pulled him into the range and picked out her favorite gun, handing him his. "Just try to outshoot me, Gearhead."

He laughed, "You're on, Princess." They shot for an hour, until Bart noticed her complexion paling. He took the gun from her, clicking on the safety, "Alright, Princess, it's time for you to get back to bed."

She groaned, "I'm not sleepy, I'm just...tired. If that makes any sense."

"Yup, know the feeling. Like if I don't eat enough and run too much." He said, picking her up. Lian leaned into his chest, for once not protesting to him treating her like the princess she was. He curled up in bed next to her, "You get some rest, I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner."

Her eyes were already fluttering shut as she mumbled, "Okay."

When she woke up, the clock beside their bed read that it was eleven-thirty at night. Bart snored peacefully next to her, so when she got up to satisfy her growling stomach, she brushed a kiss to the side of his head. On her way back from the mess-hall, Lian's empathy picked up a concentrated surge of distress.

Lian followed the pulling emotions to an observation room, the door cracked open ever so slightly.

It was enough for her to hear inside.

"The coffin was empty, Bruce. The DNA says it's her. Why are you being so stubborn about this?" She heard her grandmother say, voice far more harsh than usual.

"Because, Selina, our daughter is dead!" Her grandfather yelled back.

She heard her Uncle Damian next, "Would you both please stop! J'onn or M'gann just need to find out where she's been these last seventeen years. We can figure out what to do after."

Her grandfather spoke again, "We know what she's been doing, Damian. She's been stealing. But not only has she been stealing, she's been killing."

"So?" Selina protested, "You've killed before! Hell, I've killed before!"

"Not like that. She doesn't even give those people a fighting chance. Lian's the only one who's lived to tell about it." Bruce snapped back.

Lian shivered as her father spoke, "Exactly. She could have killed Lian like all the others, but she didn't. I have to believe that even though she doesn't remember who she is, deep down, she remembers Lian."

Her grandfather didn't like that. "You're all so naive! That's a cold blooded killer in there, that's not Kat!"

Lian lost her composure as her suspicions on the topic of conversation was confirmed. "Kat?"

The four in the room froze at her whispered word.

She saw her father turn to face the door, horror on his face, "Lian, wait!"

Lian moved too fast for the four of them though, closing the mechanical door and sealing it shut from the outside with a program key that would take even her Uncle Damian and grandfather working together at least fifteen minutes to crack. She might be a faulty empath, but she was one of the brightest computer oriented minds in the world. They couldn't open the door, and she'd crashed communications inside it. Their personal cellphones wouldn't even work. She'd written the code to protect the Watchtower from an internal attack, but now she was using it to keep her family in one room without any connections to the outside world. She couldn't let them stop her.

She walked with purpose to the holding cell down the hall that the screen in that room was linked to. Cracking the code on the door was a joke. She only burned two of her fifteen minutes getting past the protections someone had obviously put up to keep her out. They underestimated her though. Her family always did.

The door slid open, and she kept herself calm as the motion detecting lights flicked on. The woman chained to the wall gasped when she saw her, shock on her face for an instant before a well trained mask slid over, "Hello, little one." She smiled, "I'm not sure it's been long enough. The fact that you're upright with that injury I gave you is a testament to your strength, but you're less of a match for me right now than you were five days ago."

"I'm not here to fight you." Lian said, amazed that she was keeping her voice so steady. "Do you recognize me?"

She felt guilt on the other end of the bond she'd sent out, and just a flash of fear. "No."

"You're lying." Lian said, stepping closer. She was petite, not tall like her mother had been, but with the woman sitting, she was in the dominant position. She'd learned interrogation techniques from the best after all.

"I don't recognize you."

"You're lying."

"I don't know who you are."

"Truth." Lian determined, "But not the same thing as recognizing me." She held out her phone, a picture on the screen, "Now tell me, do you recognize yourself?"

Kat stared at the photo. It was of the red haired man who had captured her, only younger, a woman, and a baby girl with a head of fiery red curls. The same curls the girl staring down at her had, "That's you?"

"Yes." Lian answered, "And the woman, that's you."

Kat recognized herself, she did, but she was younger too. Younger than Kat could remember being, "I don't understand."

"This is the only picture anyone ever took of all three of us." Lian told her, "The only picture anyone took of me, Lian, and my parents, Red and Kat Harper."

"Your parents?" Kat asked, frowning, "Sorry, little one, but you all have the wrong woman. My name is Mina, I was married to a man named Jonathan, and my daughter's name was Elise."

The words didn't ring as lies, but there was a small twinge of uncertainty. "The first time we met, why didn't you kill me?"

"Didn't feel like it."

Lian shook her head, "You killed every other person in that building. Apparently I'm the only person you've left alive."

Kat scoffed, "That means nothing. So I didn't feel like ending your short life. Most people would be grateful."

"Not me. I want you to tell me why." Lian demanded.

"I don't know!" Kat yelled, "I don't know! I just didn't want to kill you! It doesn't matter, little girl, it doesn't matter at all. I'm not that woman! I'm not your mother! Leave me alone!"

Lian severed the connection, the influx of emotions startling her from both sides. "Okay." She whispered, hurt racing through her. She heard the door open and felt arms wrap around her. She ignored them, "You are her, I know it. I can feel you in my soul."

"You're all crazy!" Kat screamed as the arms pulled Lian out of the room.

Red turned his daughter around in his arms, "Lian, why the hell would you do that?"

Lian glared up at him, blue eyes cold, "I had to do something. You guys were just going to keep lying to me. How long has she been here? Hours, days?"

"We were trying to protect you." Red said, hoping she would understand.

Lian jerked away from him. "I don't need you to protect me."

"You're my daughter, that's all I know to do." He said lamely, hands reaching towards her again.

Lian surged forward, shoving him, "Well learn to do something else! I'm not a little girl anymore! I HATE you!"

The words were out before she could stop them, fear and confusion bringing them to life as her pride and guilt urged her feet into running away.

Bart was standing outside their room, a knowing expression on his face. "You okay?"

"How much did you hear?" Lian asked, not liking the expression on his face at all.

"Enough." He said, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

Lian pushed his hand away. With her emotions so raw, even the briefest touch of his bare hand seared through her. "Did you know?"

He shrugged, "Yesterday I overheard them talking, but I had no idea about what. M'gann threatened to lobotomize me if I so much as mentioned the incident to you. I didn't know anything, so I didn't say anything."

She sighed, leaning into his chest. "You were trying to protect me."

Bart kissed the top of her head, "Not really, I was just saving my own ass. M'gann's one scary lady."

"She likes you."

"No, Conner likes me. There's a difference, a very, very big difference." He rebuffed playfully. "Conner doesn't lobotomize people when he gets upset, he just beats the snot out of them."

"You're terrible." Lian said, although she knew he was telling the truth, M'gann and Conner were on very different levels.

"I know."

"I want to go to bed." She said softly.

Bart pulled her into a real kiss, ignoring her weak protest. "I love you, Li."

She smiled weakly, her eyes red with the tears she was trying to keep back, "I love you too." When he popped The Little Mermaid onto the screen in their room, she said the words again.

* * *

Red stared after his daughter in shock. "I- what?"

Selina put a hand on his shoulder, "Red, she didn't mean it."

"Yes, she did. Lian never says anything she doesn't mean." He spat.

Selina resisted the urge to slap him, "She's upset, rightfully so. We should have told her from the start."

"Oh really, and when did you decide that?"

Selina shrugged, "It's what I've said from the start."

Red rolled his eyes, "You didn't say a damned thing."

"Well I thought it. Lian's not a child, and she's not ignorant." Selina said easily.

"She is a child, and it's my job to protect her!" Red yelled at her.

Selina slapped him. "Lian is not a child."

"Yes, she is, she's nineteen years old!"

"You forget, she's married and has done a whole hell of a lot more growing up than any normal nineteen year old." Selina hissed back.

Red opened his mouth, but Bruce slammed his cane onto the ground. "Enough."

They both looked to the man. Selina cooed, "Oh, Bruce, relax."

He chuckled darkly, looking through the glass at where Kat was sitting, "She may not be a full League member, but she knows damned well what she's doing. Lian is my granddaughter after all."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Red asked.

"Look." Bruce ordered, gesturing to the glass with his cane. "She did more in five minutes than we've done in three days."

The woman in the room was rocking back and forth in her chair, lips moving silently. Had her hands been free, it looked like she'd be pulling on her hair, "What's she saying?" Red asked. They'd never gotten any sort of reaction out of her like that before.

"I don't know." Bruce said, but Selina pressed the screen to turn the sound on.

Kat's soft voice filled the small observation room, "I am nothing, I have nothing, I am no better than dirt."

Red felt sick, and swayed slightly, "What the hell did they do to her?"

Bruce's eyes were dark, "I don't know, but we're going to find out. And Lian's going to help. You're both wrong. Lian is Lian. She'll always be different. Like a flickering flame."

* * *

_"I can fake a smile_   
_I can force a laugh_   
_I can dance and play the part_   
_If that's what you ask_   
_Give you all I am_

_I can do it_   
_I can do it_   
_I can do it_

_But I'm only human_   
_And I bleed when I fall down_   
_I'm only human_   
_And I crash and I break down_   
_Your words in my head, knives in my heart_   
_You build me up and then I fall apart_   
_'Cause I'm only human"_

**Human  
By: Christina Perri**

* * *

Yet again, the next chapter is almost done! Let me know how you guys like this one! Comments are wonderful!

-Jenn


	6. Young and Beautiful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! My muse was distracted by the end of my spring semester and three weeks of a hellish Maymester, but summer has finally arrived!
> 
> This chapter is pretty much Selina-centric, and fills in some holes I've left along the way. Mostly though, I just have a really great time writing Selina, she's so much fun!

**Young and Beautiful: (Four Years after Red Mirror)**

“What do you mean by she wants Damian?” Selina snapped at Dick.

 

The young man glared at her, “Exactly what I just said. Talia intends to take Damian back to the League. He’s her son after all.”

 

“No, he’s not. Damian was never hers, he’s always been mine. I will not let her take him from me.” Selina growled. She’d already lost Kat, she wouldn’t lose Damian too.

 

Bruce put a hand on her shoulder, “Selina, no one’s taking him anywhere he doesn’t want to go. He’s eighteen.”

 

“So you’re saying we just let our son run off with a psychotic mass murderer?” She yelled, outraged by what he was saying to her.

 

He shook his head, “No, Selina. We won’t let him go, but he’s got to make the decision for himself. Do you understand?”

 

Selina lunged at her love, “Don’t patronize me!” Dick caught her though, easily keeping Bruce out of her reach.

 

Dick chuckled darkly, “Man, Bruce, you sure do know how to pick ‘em, don’t you?”

 

Selina stilled in his grasp, “Excuse me? Did you just put me in the same category as that crazy Lazarus Pit loving bitch?”

 

“Selina.” Bruce said stiffly, his mild amusement at her outrage being smothered by the fact that his taste in women left a lot to be desired most of the time. Morbidly enough, his relationship with Selina was the healthiest one he’d ever had.

 

She shrugged out of Dick’s hold, giving him an expression that would have withered most men. He just grinned back. Sometimes she really hated the oldest of Bruce’s adoptive children. Dick was a dick ninety-five percent of the time. That percentage dropped considerably when a certain newly arrived alien was in the room. And he thought she was messed up. At least she wasn’t a pedophile. Yes, she knew that the bubbly girl was far older than she looked, but still, it was fun to watch Dick squirm. If the girl didn’t annoy her so much she’d have her over all the time.

 

That night at dinner, Bruce posed Talia’s proposition to Damian while Red preoccupied himself with Lian on the other end of the house.

 

Damian stared at his parents, “She wants me to join the League of Shadows. Does she not realize I’m kind of a free agent? I don’t want to join anything, especially not with her. I don’t even know her!”

 

That had ended that, and Selina had beamed for a week.

 

Talia was not so easily dissuaded.

 

Selina and Damian had been at their favorite Mexican food joint and had taken the initiative to start walking, enjoying the sights while waiting on Bruce to go get the car. Talia attacked them. Or rather, she threw Damian away and started beating on Selina.

 

It had been years since she’d been in a real fight, but Selina wasn’t about to let the crazy eyed bitch kill her and take their son. She fought with everything she had.

 

They ended up on a pedestrian bridge, sending the civilians scattering to get out of the way of the well trained cat-fight. Talia pinned Selina down, twisting one of her arms behind her, pushing hard enough that the muscles screamed. “You’ve filled his head with lies. His place is beside me.” Talia hissed into her ear, accent thick as she pressed down on Selina’s throat with an elbow.

 

Selina’s silent prayers were answered when her free hand found a loose piece of rebar about a foot and a half long resting on the bridge. Instinct caused her to thrust the metal into the other woman’s chest. Talia gasped, looking down at herself before locking eyes with Selina.

 

Panic filled Selina, “Oh, God, no, no, no, no!” She pressed her hands around the bar, holding it still, “I-I didn’t mean to. Hold on, we’ll get help.”

 

Talia smiled up at her, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, “Perhaps you are worthy.” She put her hands over Selina’s. “You bested me in battle. Take care of them.” Her deranged smiled still in full force Talia jerked the bar from herself. Selina screamed, and Talia was dead in seconds.

 

Selina fell back from the woman’s corpse, vomiting over the side of the bridge. Her vision blurred right before she heard Bruce’s voice, “Selina!” He fell to his knees at her side, pulling her into his arms.

 

She was half mad by the experience, “I killed her.”

 

He nodded, wiping blood from her face, “I know. Are you hurt?”

 

“My shoulder.” She whispered, leaning close to his chest.

 

Bruce kissed her, careful of her injured shoulder. “I can’t lose you, Selina.”

 

“I couldn’t lose him.” She said, wondering where her little eighteen year old boy had gone. Had he seen her kill his other mother? Would he hate her?

 

Bruce wasn’t looking at her anymore, but farther down the bridge. Damian was standing over Talia’s body, his long back hair freeing itself from it’s ties. Selina watched as he knelt beside the woman and closed her eyes for the last time. “Damian.” Bruce called.

 

Her beautiful boy turned to look at them. He knelt beside them, his expression unreadable, “Do you hate me?” She asked, not bearing to hear the answer.

 

Damian gave her a tiny smile, taking one of her battered hands in his, “No, Mom. I could never hate you.”

 

Selina passed out with a smile on her face.

 

Three days later, she woke up. The first thing she noticed was a rather large bump next to her under the covers, and a tiny hum of power in her head, “Lian?” She asked, lifting the blanket to see a head of red curls. She couldn’t help but smile, carding the fingers of a bandaged hand through her granddaughter’s hair, pleased to see Isis curled up in the toddler’s chubby arms. He would always look after her, even when Selina couldn’t.

 

“She wanted to sleep in here with you.” Bruce explained from his place across the room.

 

She hadn’t noticed him, but calming hum of Lian’s power kept her heart from racing in surprise, “What did you tell her?”

 

“What could we? She’s four. All we said was you had a few ‘boo-boo’s and needed a nap.” He said the last word like a curse, and Selina smiled.

 

“You still can’t get used to that, can you? Don’t worry, she won’t be this little forever. You can start teaching her all about your microscope and computer in a handful of years, I’m sure.” Selina quipped, ignoring her shoulder ache to haul Lian closer so she could cuddle her more securely.

 

Lian stretched against her, but didn’t wake, snuggling her face into Selina’s uninjured shoulder. “I should never have left you.”

 

“What?” Selina asked, her attention drawn from Lian to Bruce.

 

“Twenty-one years ago, I shouldn’t have slammed that door in your face. I’ll never forgive myself for that.” Bruce said, looking more still than she’d ever seen him.

 

For a long time, Selina didn’t speak. It had taken her a long time to forgive him for that. And then she realized that she’d never properly absolved him of guilt that was hers. “I was a different person then.” She began, cupping his face in one of her hands. “I stole from you, I hurt you. How were you supposed to know I really was pregnant? Back then it was my job to lie. You were right to be cautious.”

 

“I was a bastard to you. My parents would have been horrified by the way I acted.” He said, guilt gnawing at him even over twenty years later. And he’d just watched Selina almost die in a fight with another woman he’d wronged.

 

“No offense, but your parents are dead, Bruce. Yes, you were a bastard, but now you’re my bastard, so that’s all that really matters, right?” Selina said softly.

 

“Not really.” He said, sinking to one knee by the bed. “Selina Kyle, would you do me the incredible honor of becoming my wife? I’ll never leave you again, no more slammed doors.”

 

Selina hid her shock behind a cocky laugh, “No more slammed doors? You forget, there’s going to be a teenager in the house. There will be more slammed doors.”

 

He stared, annoyance coloring his face, “Selina. I just asked you to marry me. Focus.”

 

She laughed again before she noticed the jewelry box in his hand. “Bruce!”

 

The man under the hood smiled again, “I need an answer, Selina.”

 

She reached out and picked up the string of pearls resting on the velvet pad, “Your mother’s pearls. And...oh!” In the center of the string of pearls was a diamond ring, white gold from her brief assessment, with a round cut diamond no less than six carats framed by half carat emeralds.

 

Bruce shook his head, saying sternly, “Selina.”

 

She jerked her attention to his face, and stared there for a few minutes. She loved him, she really did, but a great part of her had never wanted to be married. Of course she’d never wanted to be a mother either, but it had happened and she had failed spectacularly. Just once, she wanted to fling herself into something not knowing the outcome, just to trust that he would catch her when she fell, “This is forever, right, Bruce?”

 

He nodded, “You’re the only woman I’ve ever really loved, and that’s never going to change.”

 

Tears burned the back of her eyes, “Even when I’m old and wrinkly?”

 

That got her another smile. “I’m older, I’ll be old and wrinkly first.”

 

She blinked the tears back, smiling back at him, “Well we’re both in fantastic shape for our ages, so we might as well give it a try, right?”

 

“Is that a yes?” He asked cautiously.

 

“Yes!” Selina cried, throwing her arms around him and doing her best not to faint from the pain in her shoulder or squish Lian.

 

She was up walking around a week later, standing in front of the big windows overlooking the back yard, watching Red chase Lian around the green. Faintly, she could hear Lian’s shrieks of laughter and Red’s deep chested chuckles. “How are you feeling, Ms. Kyle?” Alfred asked, startling her.

 

Selina hid her anxiety behind her well crafted mask before she turned around to face him, “I’ve felt better, but I can’t complain. Bruce has taken good care of me.”

 

The butler regarded her stiffly. Bruce hadn’t allowed him into his room while Selina had been recovering. In many ways, Bruce had turned into a lion protecting his mate, the only reason she was out of the room was because, yet again, Gotham had needed Batman.

 

Alfred sniffed, “Yes, well Master Bruce is quite keen on you.”

 

“You don’t approve?” Selina asked, the ring on her left hand feeling like it weighed five hundred pounds.

 

“No.” Alfred said firmly, “You destroyed him once, you’ll do it again.”

 

“By hiding Kat from him?” She asked, her gut churning dangerously.

 

Alfred was glaring, “By telling him she’d died. He mourned that little girl for years. Did you know he had an artist render drawings of her?”

 

Selina felt the blood drain from her face, “What?”

 

“One of the nurses in the hospital gave Bruce a picture of her. That’s how he knew she was his in the beginning. He already had a good idea of what she would have looked like. For years he’d hang up the cloak on her birthday and lock himself in his room with those drawings.” Alfred said, shaking in hardly disguised anger.

 

He hated her. She didn’t blame him. “I was scared, Mr. Pennyworth. I was terrified I was going to lose her. They came and told me they could save her, but that I couldn’t tell Bruce. For her to live, he had to think she was dead. I was young, hurt, and thought I’d already lost him for good. I couldn’t lose her too.”

 

“And we lost her anyway.” Alfred said, and Selina saw the hurt in his eyes. He’d cared about Kat too.

 

“Yes, we did. But she saved the world. She was a hero. I couldn’t be prouder to have been her mother. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of that, and of Bruce’s love.” Selina said, energy flooding through her.

 

Alfred’s face softened, “Ms. Kyle, we might make a Wayne of you yet. Those pearls look lovely on you.”

 

Selina touched the string with the hand of her uninjured arm, “Thank you, Alfred.”

 

“As you were, Ms. Kyle. I need to go prepare Miss Lian’s lunch.” Alfred ordered gently.

 

Selina smiled, “You’re too good to us. And thank you, for looking after him. I wasn’t ready then, but I promise, I am now.”

 

He smiled, “I know you are. After all, Master Bruce isn’t the only one with connections.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Selina told him, knowing better than ever where Bruce got his cool collected threatening face from. “I’ll go fetch the little one.” She walked through the old house, and out onto the yard, Isis following her every step.

 

“Gramma!” Lian yelled, running in her direction as fast as her four year old legs could carry her. Selina threw her arms out and caught the little thing.

 

“Hello, sweetheart.” She said, holding the little girl close. “What have you and your Daddy been up to?”

 

“Cops and robbers!” Lian informed her.

 

Red approached slowly, face red, “Whew, she’s one fast little robber!”

 

“Takes after her Grams, doesn’t she?” Selina cooed, letting Lian go so she could chase Isis around the yard.

 

“Yeah, she does.” Red agreed, “I swear though, she makes me feel so old.”

 

“How do you think I feel?” Selina noted with a laugh. “I’m glad you two are close though.”

 

Red nodded, “Yeah, but how long is that going to last?”

 

“Well, Kat always pretty much hated me. I deserved it though. Lian loves you already, I don’t see that changing.” Selina said comfortingly.

 

They both gazed at the tiny redheaded girl as Red muttered, “God, I hope not.”

\------------------

The touch of Bruce’s hand on hers brought her to the present. “Sorry?”

 

He smiled the tiniest bit, “I asked if you wanted to go home and get some sleep.”

 

She shook her head, “No. We’re needed here.”

 

Selina stared through the glass at the younger woman there. “She hardly looks forty-three. I know we have fantastic genetics, but she could damn near pass for thirty with her hair done and makeup on.”

 

“They had aged her eight years, it’s possible they reverted her to her original age. Perhaps that’s why she doesn’t remember us.” Bruce offered.

 

“She should remember me. I was a failure as a mother, but I was there.” Selina reminded him. “She should remember the little brother she raised mostly on her own.”

 

He shrugged, “Well, part of her remembers Lian.”

 

“Exactly.” Selina replied. Since their granddaughter had made her spectacular little move, Kat had been in a tailspin. “She’ll destroy herself going on like this.”

 

“She’s strong, Selina. She’ll figure it out.” He assured her.

 

Selina shot him a sidelong glance, “Wasn’t it you who was advising us not to get attached?”

 

Another tiny smile, more impish than usual, not unlike the one he’d given her when Terry had ‘accidentally’ discovered the Batcave. She’d almost killed him for that. In many ways, she used Terry to replicate how she should have been with Damian. She was fiercely protective of the boy, even though he wasn’t hers. Bruce was still smiling, “That was then, this is now. You were right, she’s our daughter. She may be a killer now, but she’s still the same person. She’s lost right now, but as her family, it’s our responsibility to take care of her.”

 

Selina touched his face, guilt spreading through her. “You should have had more than a year knowing her. I’m so sorry.”

 

“Don’t mention it again.” Bruce said, moving to wrap her in his arms, cane abandoned against the console.

 

Selina leaned into him, “I can only imagine how he’s feeling.”

 

Bruce nuzzled his face into her hair, looking through the glass. “Red’s talking to Lian.”

 

“How’s it going so far?”

 

“She’s angry, but she’s a daddy’s girl.” Bruce assured her, brushing his lips across her forehead.

 

Selina’s mind wandered back to that blissfully sunny day, where the bond between Red and Lian had almost made the ache Kat had left behind fade. “Yes, she is, isn’t she?”

* * *

_"I've seen the world, lit it up_

_As my stage now_   
_Channeling angels in the new age now_   
_Hot summer days, rock 'n' roll_   
_The way you play for me at your show_   
_And all the ways I got to know_   
_Your pretty face and electric soul_   
  
_Will you still love me_   
_When I'm no longer young and beautiful?_   
_Will you still love me_   
_When I got nothing but my aching soul?_   
_I know you will, I know you will_   
_I know that you will_   
_Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?_   
  
_Dear lord, when I get to heaven_   
_Please let me bring my man_   
_When he comes tell me that you'll let him in_   
_Father tell me if you can_   
_Oh that grace, oh that body_   
_Oh that face makes me wanna party_   
_He's my sun, he makes me shine like diamonds"_

**Young and Beautiful  
By: Lana Del Rey**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter sees Lian back in the field and another Mother/Daughter confrontation. Still at least ten more chapters outlined with some pretty cool things coming in them for this plot arc. I haven't worked out the second arc so much yet, but I know it'll happen!
> 
> -Jenn


	7. Called Out In The Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Lian make up, and basically the whole plot moves forward from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very sorry that it took me two months to get this out! This chapter just would not cooperate. On the plus side, the next chapter is totally complete! (I actually wrote it before this one) That being said, comments and kudos will make me post the next chapter faster!

* * *

**Called Out in the Dark:**

Lian glared at her father, “You’re still an ass.”

 

Red winced, “Yeah, I know. I’ve been fucking up everything since I was hatched out of my test tube.”

 

Lian giggled, “You’re so dramatic.”

 

“You’re a brat.” He snapped back, secretly thrilled she seemed to not hate him anymore. Although with an empath for a daughter his excitement wasn’t so secret. She let it slide though.

 

“I know. Just...lay off a bit. The whole League treats me like I’m a child, and it’s gotten old. And they only do it because _you_ still treat me like a kid.” She told him firmly, holding one of his weathered hands in hers, “Lead by example, right? That’s what Grandpa’s always told me, and I think it’s the best advice I’ve ever heard. Can you please try to let me forge my own way? I’m not as fragile as you think I am.”

 

He sighed, “Oh, Li, no father is just going to stop protecting his daughter.” She scowled, and he smiled back at her, holding his arms out to her, “I’ll try to be less of an ass about it, promise.”

 

Lian melted into his hug, arms tight around him, “They’ve hurt her.”

 

He kissed the top of her head, “I know, Li, I know.”

 

“We keep fighting the good fight though, don’t we?” She said, pulling away as alerts sounded through the hallways, summoning League members to the nexus of the Tower.

 

Red held her hand, “Yes, we do.”

 

Bart joined them at the briefing, sliding his hand into Lian’s empty one. She leaned against him and he kissed the top of her head, “All good?”

 

“All good.” Lian replied, grinning at him.

 

He grinned back, “Crash.”

 

Her father made a disgruntled noise and pulled away when J’onn called Red Arrow up to the teleport pad. Really, he was getting older and she’d tried to convince him to hang up his mask, but her mother wasn’t the only source of her stubbornness. Her mother... Was that her? That woman in that little room. Anger flared in her. Very deeply, she knew that, while she might not remember, the woman in that room was her mother. Feeding off the agitation and blood lust in the room, Lian was fighting every instinct telling her to hunt down the people who had destroyed her mother and turn it all back on them. They had taken the chance of her knowing her mother away. Yes, her family loved her, but what would life had been like if there hadn’t been that lingering darkness in their eyes? 

 

The darkness that was far too much like the one that was in everything her grandfather did. Lian had never seen any member of her family without that darkness. They’d done their best, but she’d been raised on that darkness, fed on it through her empathy. Bart was her light. For so long she’d done her best to fix the darkness in her family, but she’d never thought about the root it had taken in her, not until she’d first seen Bart smile at her.

 

Bart elbowed her.

 

“Sorry, what’s going on?” Lian asked, having totally zoned out.

 

“A whole bunch of crazy shit.” He said brightly, but his expression faltered. “The Light. They’re back.”

 

“The Light? I don’t...” Lian trailed off, trying to remember everything associated with the name.

 

Bart interrupted her, “Before your time, babe. Last they were around, you were...”

 

“They’re the ones that got my mother killed.” She said, interrupting him for a change.

 

Bart faltered again, the look on his face telling her that he’d hoped she wouldn’t make the connection. “Well, she’s not really dead, but, yeah, I guess so.”

 

“That’s that, then.” She said firmly, moving out of his grip. She approached J’onn with a fearlessness no one else could pull off. She’d known the Martian her whole life though. “Send me out.”

 

His face showed no surprise, and he answered without hesitating, “No.”

 

“Why not? I know you all voted to bring me into the League. Why not start now?” Lian questioned, staring into his eyes, filtering her challenge through her mind and body.

 

“You should keep your eyes off League files.” J’onn said, a hint of approval coming through his mind to hers, “Very well, Huntress, tele-pad four. Stick with your group. No unnecessary risks until we fully understand the situation.”

 

Lian took the instructions with a smile, kissing his cheek as she sprinted by him. “Thank you, Uncle J’onn!”

 

His deep voice called after her, “Lian, be careful. That’s an order.”

 

“Got it!” She called back, stepping onto tele-pad four with the others standing there.

 

She paired with some kid whose codename escaped her, but she remembered his name as something like Raul. Or maybe it was Paul. It had gotten hard to keep up with all of the new recruits. They were walking by an alleyway when Lian heard crying, “You guys keep going, I’ve got it.” She said to the others, waving them on and ducking into the alley.

 

A little girl was huddled behind a smashed garbage can, sobbing. “You okay there?”

 

“No, I’m scared!” A tiny voice called.

 

Lian knelt next to the child, taking in the white-blonde hair and unnaturally dark tear-filled eyes. “I’ve got you, we’re gonna get you someplace safe, okay?”

 

“Not safe!” The girl yelled, sobbing harder.

 

“Hey, kid, don’t cry. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Lian whispered, rubbing the little girl’s shoulders.

 

The child sobbed again, scrunching her face up, “It’s not me they’re going to hurt!”

 

“Who, sweetie? Who’s going to get hurt?” Lian asked, hauling the terrified girl onto her hip.

 

The girl’s face was inches away from hers when she hiccuped and said, “You. They’re going to hurt you.”

 

Lian froze for an instant, a note of sincerity chilling her, but she put on a smile, “Oh, no, sweetie, that’s not gonna happen. I’m not gonna get hurt.”

 

“Yes you are.” The girl insisted, “They’re going to hurt you! They’re going to hurt you and then they’re going to kill you!”

 

Lian’s chest felt tight, “Why would you say that?”

 

“I’ve seen it.” The girl whispered, “I’ve seen it, and we all die. First you, then everyone. All gone. The Dark Side is coming. You have to stop what’s coming, but you can’t. First you, then everyone. All gone, all dead.” She gripped Lian’s suit with surprising strength, “The face changes, but it all stays the same. The future hasn’t changed. Just delayed. Someone pressed pause, but it’s all coming back. First you, then everyone. First you, then everyone. A domino. You.”

 

“What are you?” Lian asked breathlessly, falling to her knees, letting the girl go.

 

The girl curled in on herself, holding her knees to her chest and rocking on the cement, jostling slightly from explosions blocks away.“Time. Here, there, I am everywhere, and I always have been. I see the future, as it will be, as it has been. Things need to change, or we all die. First you, then everyone. First you, then everyone. A domino.”

 

“Crazy, you have to be crazy.” She was an empath, but the girl was talking crazy. No one knew everything. She’d met enough people with special abilities to know that that power couldn’t possibly belong to one person.

 

“That’s what they say, but I’m not.” She said urgently, “We knew each other, in the different time. You weren’t so nice then, but now, you’re different. You have to be more different though. Change. First you, then everyone. You’re the domino. A piece in time that’s not like the others. You and Bart. Dominos. Placed just right or everything falls apart.”

 

“How do I change?” Lian asked, remembering a little girl Bart had described as one of the future survivors, a little girl who had once just been able to see the future, but had been experimented on until her mind had shattered. Sometimes she had been right, but mostly she just talked crazy. If she was the same girl, Lian couldn’t afford to ignore her. Her head ached. Why couldn’t her life be simple? Oh, right, there was a Wayne tacked somewhere in her name. Simple was not a Wayne trait.

 

“You’ve never had your mother before. You need her, she needs you. Mother-Daughter, you never should have been apart. She has to remember. She must turn back from the Shadows and the Light. Otherwise, we all die. First you, then everyone.” The girl told her, and Lian struggled to remember her name.

 

“Okay, I’ll try talking to her again.” Lian told the girl lamely.

 

She shook her head, “Talking won’t work. Like me. Dark rooms. Pain. Sickness. Death. Never ending cycle. When someone breaks the loop, there’s no bounds to the devotion that follows. You found me then, you showed me the path to Justice. They showed her the Shadows and the Light. The Dark is coming. First you, then everyone.”

 

“Yeah, I get it, me first. You can stop saying that.” Lian snapped. She didn’t care about her mother’s devotion to the Light. Her devotion to her daughter should have meant more.

 

“I can’t.” The girl said, and Lian saw tears in her eyes. “It’s taking everything I have so this finds you at the right time. I’m out of time. Tell Bart he owes me an orange soda, and fix it, before everyone else dies.”

 

Before Lian could say anything else, the girl vanished, and an unseen force knocked Lian on her ass, cracking her head against the brick wall behind her. Her vision blurred, and she lost consciousness. At least until she heard J’onn yelling in her head, “Lian! Lian?”

 

“Yeah, what’s it?” She murmured, opening her eyes slowly and feeling the back of her head for the knot that had to be there.

 

“You separated from your group. Are you injured?” He asked firmly.

 

There was nothing wrong with the back of her head, not a bump, or a scratch, nothing to explain her loss of consciousness, “Uh...no...How long have I been gone from my group?”

 

“Approximately a minute, please rejoin them. You’re a half block North. I explicitly told you to stay with them.” J’onn was using his displeased voice, the one Lian had been able to discern by the time she was five, even though no one else could tell the difference.

 

“Okay, sorry. Got a stone caught in my boot.” Lian lied, hoping he couldn’t tell.

 

“Lian...” He said, dragging her name out in a way that let her know he was clenching his teeth against the urge to yank her back up to the Watchtower.

 

She steadied her mind, brushing the odd incident off as a result of her hitting her head or something. “Uncle J’onn. I’m fine. Tell the others I’m making a roof loop to them.”

 

“Confirmed. We will speak when you return, Huntress.” He said ominously, but she wasn’t really listening, instead pulling herself up the ladder along the side of the building and onto the rooftop. She looked down, and the alley didn’t look anything at all like she’d thought it had. It really must have been a hallucination brought on by her hitting her head, there was no where for the little girl to have been hiding.

 

 

“They were looking for someone.” Bart said darkly, perched on the countertop next to her.

 

Everyone regarded him questioningly. Just like Lian, they sometimes forgot that he had grown up in a war zone. “Looking for someone, Ese?” Jaime Reyes asked his good friend from the sofa he’d crashed out on, nursing a bruised arm where someone had tried to take it off at the shoulder.

 

“A female. Did none of you notice that they were trying to get all of us guys out of the way? They nearly decapitated Batgirl.” Bart glanced over at the girl in question, “You okay, Cassie?” Cassandra coughed when she tried to speak, but just nodded and gave a thumbs up, rubbing her throat. “Awesome, but they were definitely going through the girls and just batting us guys away.”

 

The girls nodded, all tending to some sort of wound while Jaime was the only guy that had so much as a bruise. “Li, you seem okay.” Red said, looking his daughter over.

 

Lian nodded, “Yeah, they must have missed me.”

 

Bart grabbed her wrist, “Where did you get this?”

 

“Huh?” Lian gasped, looking down at her wrist where Bart was removing a little crocheted bracelet she hadn’t noticed. “I don’t know.”

 

Bart held the piece of yarn up, staring at it like he was seeing a ghost. “This belonged to Mariah. She was a member of our group in the world I come from. She...”

 

“Saw the future.” Lian finished for him, knowing now that she hadn’t been hallucinating when she’d seen the little girl with white-blonde hair. “I saw her.” Lian admitted slowly.

 

“That’s impossible, Lian. Not only is there no one left to build another time machine, but Mariah died three weeks before I left.” Bart told her, but he stared at the yarn bracelet, “But this was hers. She’d fidget with it all day long, creating it, unwinding it, starting over again. A thousand times a day. It’s impossible, but we never really did figure out everything she could do.”

 

“She vanished, just before I heard from J’onn who told me only a minute had passed, but it had to have been longer. A ghost maybe?” Lian postulated.

 

Bart regarded her critically, “What did she say to you, Lian?”

 

“End of time rambling. A bit about my mother.” She said, and they continued talking as a group about the whole mission and incident with Mariah.

 

Lian slipped out the side of the room, nodding reassuringly at Conner Kent when she felt his eyes on her. She was at the room holding her mother in minutes. “Hey.” She said lamely when she entered the room.

 

The older woman glared at her, “Can’t you all just leave me alone in my own misery? If you’re not going to let me go, you can at least let me die in peace.”

 

“You haven’t been eating.” Lian stated, looking at the untouched tray by the door. “You should eat.”

 

“Not in the mood.” Kat snapped.

 

Lian shuffled a few steps closer, “You should eat, keep your strength up.”

 

“Why do you even care?” She replied lashing out again.

 

“Because you’re my mother.” Lian said simply, leaving all of Mariah’s end of days talk for another time.

 

Kat sighed in annoyance, “For the last time, I am not your mother. My daughter is dead!”

 

“I’m not dead.” Lian whispered, voice cracking, wanting more than anything to feel her mother hold her.

 

Anger sparked through Kat, “Oh, stop that, you sniveling little girl. You aren’t my daughter! You’re all crazy, keeping me locked in here. I want out!”

 

Lian hardened herself, pushing the desire for a mother’s touch out of her head, getting closer to the woman. “The only crazy person here is you. Mina doesn’t exist. You are Katherine Harper, and you are loved.”

 

Kat stood quickly, lunging at the girl. Lian squeaked in surprise, putting her arms up to defend herself but ending up in a choke hold. “I am not your mother.” Kat hissed in her ear, fully prepared to kill the girl in her grasp.

 

Lian struggled to free herself, gasping for air, clawing the woman’s arm far enough away to gasp out, “Stop it!”

 

Power jolted between them, fueled by Lian’s pent up anger and frustration, and Kat went slack, falling to the floor with a sickening crack. Lian stood over her body for an instant before falling to her knees, “Oh, God. I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry!” Hysteria welled in her, “Somebody, help!”

 

Moments later the room was filled with people, and yet again, her father was pulling her from the room. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to hurt her!”

 

Red held his daughter to his chest, acutely aware of what was going on in the holding room, but also of the fact that his little girl’s heart was about to beat out of her chest, “It’s okay, Pumpkin head. Calm down. You need to calm down.”

 

“I can’t!” Lian screamed, the sound echoing through the metal hallways.

* * *

_"It's like we just can't help ourselves_  
 _'Cause we don't know how to back down_  
 _We were called out to the streets_  
 _We were called in to the towns_  
  
 _And how the heavens, they opened up_  
 _Like arms of dazzling gold_  
 _With our rain washed histories_  
 _Well they do not need to be told_  
  
 _Show me now, show me the arms aloft_  
 _Every eye trained on a different star_  
 _This magic_  
 _This drunken semaphore_  
 _And I_  
  
 _We are listening_  
 _And we're not blind_  
 _This is your life_  
 _This is your time"_

**Called Out In The Dark**  
  
By: Snow Patrol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	8. It's Been Awhile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little odd, so just bear with me! Very dream sequencey!

**It’s Been Awhile:**

Everything around her was dark, and her ears were ringing when Mina woke up, a thick void that threatened to swallow her up again.

"So why was Red Claw after you?" A male voice asked through the darkness.

She blinked the void away, eyes focusing on a young man in an absurd outfit. "I don't know." She felt herself mutter, but the voice was all wrong, far too young.

The young man, boy really, raised a red eyebrow, "You're a pretty terrible liar."

She felt herself stand sluggishly and continue to speak in that too young voice, "So I've been told. So what's your name? I need to thank you."

"You can call me Speedy." He said curtly.

Something flickered on her face, something she was unfamiliar with, "I meant your real name, not your alias." She felt herself sigh when he didn’t respond. "Well then 'Call Me Speedy', thank you for saving us."

"Well I couldn't let you drown, and I couldn't let Red Claw kidnap you." The boy continued awkwardly. "So what's your name?"

She felt herself bite her lip, an odd feeling gesture, "My name's Katherine."

No, that was wrong. Her name was Mina. Was she being hypnotized by those crazy people?

Her eyes didn’t stray from the boy though, they couldn’t. His every movement was riveting her to the spot. He shifted awkwardly, "Pretty name. What's his name?" He asked, looking at a sleeping child she hadn’t noticed.

"That's my little brother Damian." The too young, crazy voice said, the odd feeling on her face intensifying.

"He looks like you." The boy said, and she was suddenly closer to him.

"You know, I should give you something for saving us. That's what's done, right?" The girl voice said, just a hint of some familiar tone to it.

The boy flushed, "I don't need anything."

"Of course you do!" She exclaimed, "I need to thank you for not calling the League."

"They wouldn't take anything I say seriously. I'm just a sidekick." He replied venomously.

"Well, Red, sidekicks grow up. You'll get your own place someday, I'm sure." She shivered.

"Red?" The boy scoffed. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

An uncomfortable breath of air ripped from her lips, "I can't very well call you Speedy. Everyone calls you that!" She watched her hand reach out to touch his hair, and there was no denying it, that was her hand, down to the pale birthmark just above the bone on her wrist, "Plus, you've got red hair."

The boy shifted uncomfortably, "You're cold, he must be freezing. Why don't you two get going to someplace warm and safe."

She felt a more familiar smile tug at her lips, and hopped off the dumpster to stand in front of him. "Well I guess this is goodbye then, Red. I hope we see each other again someday. Thank you."

There was a second of hesitation before she grabbed him, pressing her lips to his. While the kiss was brief and certainly a figment of her imagination, it felt right. He jerked under her touch, surprised for an instant before he kissed back, putting a warm gloved hand on her cheek. She wanted to melt into his touch, into the odd comfort of him. But she pulled away unwillingly, picking up the sleeping younger boy and leaving with a call over her shoulder, “Bye, Red!”

An unsettling wave passed over her and she was suddenly in another place, the body she was ghosting in much more mature than the last. There were dishes in her hands, the cool ceramic feeling incredibly real, the window above the sink exposing a beautiful snowscape unlike one she had seen before. It was really lovely. A glint of gold caught her eye, and she found herself staring at a wedding band on her left hand. Crane had never given her a ring. She was startled out of her inspection of the foreign object when a door slammed open. The dark haired boy, older than before, in her peripheral vision went running, and she felt compelled to follow. “Red, are you okay?” The boy asked, his voice making her gut churn.

“Roy, what’s wrong?” She felt herself ask, the voice much more her own, kneeling beside him and pushing the boy behind her.

“Don’t call me that!” He yelled, hitting his head against the wooden floor, “I’m not Roy.”

“What?” She asked in confusion, touching his hand, where a matching gold ring dug into the skin, trying to escape the pressure he was putting on the floor.

He sobbed, and for the first time she recognized him as the redheaded boy from the first vision, “I’m a clone, Katherine. The real Roy Harper is somewhere else. For three years, I’ve been in his place. I’m not real.”

She felt her head shake, “Red, you are real. Calm down. I...”

“I’m not real!” He flung a hand out, hitting her across the face, knocking her back. She was still, shock echoing through her body as she picked herself up off the floor and wiped a smear of blood off of her mouth.

The naive girl kept trying to soothe him, to end his pacing. The groveling went on for far too long, “Baby, we’ll get through this together. It will be okay. I love you. Just stay with me. Red, please stop. You’re scaring Damian.” The boy was wide eyed in the corner of the room, and the redheaded man’s eyes flitted to him.

He grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her, “I have to leave, Katherine. I need to figure this out on my own, and I need you not to follow me.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she did something Mina would never do, she begged, “Red, please don’t leave me.”

“I’m so sorry, Kat. I love you, but that’s the only thing I’m sure of right now.” He wiped a tear off her face, “Don’t follow me. I don’t want to hurt you anymore then I am right now.”

The boy, Damian, threw himself at them, wrapping his arms around them both, “Please, Red, don’t leave us.” The boy was strong, but the man pried him off easily.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered before he walked out.

The unsettling wave passed over her again, and she was back in the kitchen, “No, Lois, I’m not in the mood to go out tonight. Yes, Damian’s at a friend’s house, but still, I just want a night in by myself.” The woman on the other end of the line protested furiously, but something outside caught her eye, something Mina didn’t notice, “Lois, I’ve got to call you back.”

The redheaded man was back at the door, face scruffy, but eyes clear. She reached a hand out to him, not saying a word as she pulled him into the house and into their bedroom. After a rather spectacular round of sex, where he worshiped every inch of her body like a dying man drinking in an ocean full of water, they finally spoke, his deep masculine voice breaking the silence, “I’m sorry.”

She cuddled into him, something Mina certainly didn’t do. “Hush, Red. You’re here, right now. Let’s just be in the now. Can you do that for me?”

He nodded, tightening his arms around her, “I love you, Kat.”

Something wistful pulled at her gut, and she frowned slightly, “I know you do.” Her eyes trailed to her wrists, where thin scars told her that the naive little girl was long gone. Those were cuts meant to end a life, the naive girl from before would never have considered something so immoral.

When she woke up she was alone, the only real signs that he’d ever been there the ache between her legs and note on the kitchen white board, _‘I’m sorry’_ echoed again in black marker. A very familiar anger swept through her and she furiously erased the words, “One of these days I just need to go out with Lois and get plastered instead of putting myself through all this shit.” She grumbled curses as she cleaned the house, and for once Mina felt connected to the girl.

She was lost when the vision changed again. “Holy shit, Harper. You’re pregnant.” She glared at the other woman, snatching a little pink stick from her.

“Screw you, Lois. I don’t need your approval to get laid!” She snapped.

The woman, Lois, a creature with a beautiful yet aquiline face and eyes that missed nothing, threw her hands up, “Okay, be a bitch. See if I throw you a baby shower.”

“Takes one to know one, Lois!” She yelled after the other woman, staring down at the stick in her hands, “Oh, shit.” She laughed a little, “Damnit, Clark. Why’d you have to be right?”

The vision changed again, and so did the body. Her center of balance was totally wrong, and she was dizzy. “Kat? You okay?”

She blinked a few times, vision returning to normal again, “Yeah, just dizzy. Can you repeat what you just said?”

“Um.. You okay?” The boy, the brother, Damian, said nervously.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “Not that, the other thing.”

He winced, “Uh, I may have failed my English test.”

Frustration welled up, “Really, Dai? As if I don’t have enough on my plate, now I’ve got to worry about your grades? Is this some absurd cry for more attention?”

Anger colored his face, “No! I just messed up, it’s not a big deal.”

She stood directly in front of him, arms crossed in front of her tightly, “Damian Kyle, it is too a big deal. I can’t handle worrying about you right now, okay? I can barely handle myself.”

“I didn’t tell you to let him in and get knocked up.” The kid snapped.

Knocked up? That would explain why her crossed arms were so far up, they were resting on slightly larger breasts and above a rather distended stomach. Pregnant. Yes, it was there, that same fear and trepidation she remembered from being pregnant herself, but even in the strange hallucination this pregnancy felt more real, more right. She could feel the child stretching inside of her, more than she’d ever remembered feeling Elise.

What did it all mean?

They kept telling her that she was this woman, that she wasn’t Mina Crane, but a woman named Katherine Harper. How odd that those memories seemed so much more real than the ones she thought were her own. The baby gave a sharp kick and an odd sense of calm came over her. The baby. She somehow knew it was the baby calming her down.

An empath.

Just like the girl with the red curls. The girl who truly believed she was her daughter. Those red curls had haunted her for years. Why? Was it possible that they were telling her the truth? She couldn’t remember ever loving Crane, but that man, Red, he was captivating, and she was endeared to him just from a string of visions where in half of them he was screwing things up.

And the girl.

There was a tremendous fire in her. She would have made a fantastic Shadow, almost better than Mina.

Lian.

That was her name, and it stirred something in her as the baby in the vision moved again. She tuned back to the woman that was possibly her speaking to the boy. “Damian, you broke into...what?”

“Kat, cool down, it’s just an old hard drive, and the term is hacked, not broke into.” The teenager said blithely.

“You can’t do that, Damian. No hacking! It’s illegal!” She yelled.

He scoffed, “Mom wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

The woman absolutely screeched, “Mom? Really? Mom? The same mother who would have let you starve if I hadn’t been there to take care of you? The same mother who could hardly hold you for longer than two minutes? She was shit to me, but she was way worse to you.”

Damian said nothing, just stared at her, a sad expression on his face, “You be a better mom to her than ours was to us, okay?”

They embraced.

Mina woke up.

Or was she Kat?

Honestly, she didn’t know anymore.

“Lian, calm down.” The man’s voice said from somewhere outside her room.

“I can’t!” The girl yelled, “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to hurt her! I’m so sorry!”

“Raven, do something! She’s going to lose it.” The man growled, Red, she placed it. That’s what Red sounded like now.

Another female spoke, the voice the same as the one that had chastised a young Lian the first time she had laid eyes on the girl, “I’ll do what I can. Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos.” The chanting continued, and Lian’s panicked cries softened into whispered before fading into the background noise.

The woman opened her eyes, into the eyes of another woman. Selina Kyle. She had seen the woman a few times before during her captivity, but they’d never been so close. “Hello, Kitten.” Selina whispered, touching her cheek tenderly.

“You know me?” Mina asked before she could stop herself.

Selina nodded, “Of course I do. I’m your mother after all.”

Her mother?

It was a foreign concept, but looking into Selina Kyle’s face was like looking into a mirror. The same thin nose and thick red lips. The same shaped eyes. The color was different though. Selina’s constantly shifted from dark brown to a calm forest green, Mina knew her’s were blue. The same blue as the little red haired girl and the man she’d seen standing at Selina’s side so often.

“I-” She began, but stopped, unsure of what to say.

Selina touched a damp rag to her forehead, “You hit your head when you fell.”

“Don’t remember falling.” She whispered, Selina’s gentle touch making her head spin.

Selina nodded, her dark chocolate hair falling across her face, four shades lighter than Mina’s, “You upset my granddaughter.” She smiled thinly, “She’s an empath, and she isn’t always in control of herself. We weren’t sure you would wake up after she zapped you.”

“I’m tougher than I look.” She quipped, though she felt like she’d been punched in the gut and then run over by an eighteen wheeler.

Another tender swipe to her forehead, “I know you are. My tough little Kitten.”

“Where are the rest of my torturers?” She asked, trying to keep up conversation with the one person that hadn’t yelled at her or tried to intimidate her.

The older woman rolled her eyes, “We aren’t torturing you. Trust me, if we were, you wouldn’t be in a room like this. Of course when J’onn get’s back, he’ll want his plush interrogation room back.”

“Is she okay? The little girl?” She asked Selina.

That got her another smile, “Lian’s fine. She mostly just panicked when you wouldn’t wake up. I told her you’d be fine, but this has been so hard for her.”

She didn’t want to talk about the little girl anymore, about Lian. “Who am I?”

Selina paused, the blood tinged red rag in her hand lowering to her lap as she sighed, “That’s a subject of great contention, as I’m sure you are aware. According to your DNA and my gut, you’re Kat Harper. According to you, however, you’re a woman named Mina Crane. Which one are you?”

She felt ill, “I’m not sure. When I got here, I was all Mina, but now...I’m remembering Kat too. Which one is the lie?”

Selina cupped her face in her hands, rag abandoned, “I don’t know, Kitten. That’s for you to find out.” Selina kissed her forehead, more tenderly than she could ever remember anyone touching her. “Come back when you know. Don’t leave an old woman hanging with such a question lingering.” Selina told her, slipping to the door, and with one last easy smile, slipping out the doorway, leaving the door itself unlatched.

It took her just a few seconds to decide that she needed to get the hell off the space station. Selina had made it easy. There was a pile of new clothes, clothes she’d seen the civilian workers of the tower wearing when they’d slid food across the room at her. She changed quickly, not willing to risk being caught.

Ah, yes, Selina was very good. It was time for a shift change, so without hardly any ado, she blended in with the crowd of similarly dressed workers, her black-brown hair curled up under the standard issue cap.

“Gotham. Why does it always have to be Gotham?” She said to herself once they landed. It wasn’t a bad thing though, at least she had a cache of her own things in Gotham. The sooner she shed the League clothes, the better.

* * *

_"And it's been awhile_   
_Since I can say that I wasn't addicted_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_Since I can say I love myself as well_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_Since I've gone and fucked things up just like I always do_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_But all that shit seems to disappear when I'm with you_

_And everything I can't remember_   
_As fucked up as it all may seem_   
_The consequences that I've rendered_   
_I've gone and fucked things up again_   
  
_Why must I feel this way?_   
_Just make this go away_   
_Just one more peaceful day!_   
  
_And it's been awhile_   
_Since I could look at myself straight_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_Since I said I'm sorry_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_Since I've seen the way the candles light your face_   
_And it's been awhile_   
_But I can still remember just the way you taste"_

**It's Been Awhile**  
  
By: Staind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll get back to Lian and everyone else next chapter. Also, a current Red/Kat scene is in the future! Exciting!
> 
> What'd you guys think?  
> -Jenn


	9. Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Selina letting Kat/Mina go!

**Arms:**

Lian was finally asleep, Bart curled next to her while Raven floated nearby, repeating her mantra over and over again in a voice so soft that the words faded into the background noise of the station. Lian was pale, more sickly looking than she’d been after she’d been stabbed. She’d been hysterical when they’d found her kneeling next to Kat. For a terrible moment, Red had thought that Kat was dead because of her unnatural stillness and the small pool of blood under her head. She’d been breathing though, and his fear at Lian’s heartbreaking cries drew his attention away. 

He’d never seen his daughter like that before, never felt her fight so hard to get away from everyone trying to help her. In those few minutes before the telepaths arrived, Lian had scared him to death. Kat was sleeping in her room, having received a zap of Lian’s power and cracking her head on the floor as she fell. J’onn had already assured him that she’d be fine. She’d have a nice knot on her temple underneath a shallow cut, but she would be awake and okay in a matter of hours.

They weren’t so sure about Lian.

J’onn had explained it to him as best he could, but the Martian didn’t quite have the knack for simplifying things for simpler minds that his niece did. From what he’d gotten out of it, Lian and Kat had been psychically connected since Lian’s birth, hence the nightmares of Kat’s torture that Lian had been subjected to when she’d been injured. Basically, Lian and Kat were two ends of a power-line, sharing things without realizing it. They’d both been upset, according to the surveillance tapes, and Lian had fought back after Kat had attacked her, physically and mentally.

Lian had inadvertently drained herself the same way. Raven said her power had never been weaker, and it was taking a toll on her physical body that had been exhausted by her own panic. That was why Bart was next to her. According to Raven, Bart had served as Lian’s focus point since the day they’d met, and his physical closeness would quicken her recovery. Otherwise, Red would have been holding his baby girl instead of the time traveling little bastard.

Red was still fuming, especially since Selina had already shooed him out of Kat’s room, saying that when she woke up she’d probably do better if a new, nonthreatening face was there to greet her. Grudgingly, he’d agreed.

Oliver tipped his head towards the doorway and Red reluctantly followed. Snapping, “What?” when they got into the hallway and the door closed behind them.

Oliver glared at his tone, “Excuse me?”

Red sighed, he was almost forty, but Oliver insisted on attempting to teach him manners. There was a reason he and Roy never went to any Queen functions. Well that and Roy had an on again off again love affair with Oliver’s baby sister, Thea. They were currently on again, so the younger Harper had been conspicuously absent. Oliver had been in a bad mood for weeks. Even after almost twenty years, Oliver and Roy still didn’t get along. Red was just lucky that Oliver seemed to like him. He had Lian to thank for that though, Oliver and Dinah adored her so Oliver had been forced by his better half to mend the fences between them. Dating Oliver’s much younger sister hadn’t done Roy any favors. Queen family dinners were tense.

Red sighed, “Sorry. Didn’t mean that to come out like that. Stressed. What’s up, Ollie?”

Oliver clapped him on the shoulder, “Relax, Red. The kid’ll be fine. She’s a fighter, just like her parents.” He cleared his throat, “Speaking of, um... Kat’s gone.”

“Excuse me?” Red growled, echoing his former mentor.

Oliver chuckled anxiously, “Uh, Selina let her sneak out right after she woke up. And when I say let her sneak out, I mean Selina pretty much drew her a map and held the door open. Bruce is still screaming at her. I’m not even sure the woman is hearing a word he’s saying though, she’s in villainess mode. Not sure how he sleeps at night with her next to him. She’s more frightening than Dinah.”

“There’s never a Batarang too far away.” Red said honestly, wracking his brain to comprehend everything. Unlike his daughter, he wasn’t a veritable genius. Why on Earth would Selina have let her go?

Oliver tried to stop him, but he headed to the room that Kat had been kept in, unsurprised to find Selina and Bruce still inside, the man growling at his headstrong and defiant wife who couldn’t have looked less perturbed if she’d tried.

“Why did you let her go?” Red demanded.

Selina drug her eyes to him, the slight movement slow and calculated to have the greatest intimidating impact. “Because it’s what’s best for her.”

“How the hell would you know that?” Red snapped, angrier at the woman than he’d ever been before. Judging by the mottling on Bruce’s face, he’d never been angrier at her either.

She seemed totally unconcerned, examining her nails as she said simply, “I’m her mother.”

If he wasn’t certain Bruce would kill him, Red would have strangled the woman. He sat down instead, “Oh, come on, Selina. You were a crap mother to Kat, so how the hell could you possibly know what was best for her when she’s stuck calling herself Mina?”

“Mina is more what a daughter of mine would have been like. More me than Bruce. Selfish, deadly. I don’t like killing, it’s messy, but I am capable. I’ve done it before. When she was Kat, she’d never have even thought of killing, too much like her father. They stripped her of that moral compass. The woman we were holding in that room was a killer being confronted with the fact that almost every memory she has is a lie. She thinks like a villain now, not a hero. The only way she’ll figure this all out is if she has time alone to breathe.” Selina said all of it firmly, and Red knew she’d already said it all to Bruce before.

Red couldn’t help but disagree with the most fundamental point the woman was trying to make. “Kat never did well alone. You always thought she did, but she didn’t. She needs someone to talk to. Where is she?”

Selina looked hurt, “You think I’d put a tracker on my daughter?”

“You didn’t?” Bruce whispered, surprised.

“No, she’d have found it. My goal is for her not to go back to hating me.” Selina quipped, and Isis stretched at her side before wandering out of the room, heading for Lian. Red was silent for a few minutes, ignoring the conversation going on between his in-laws and adoptive father, at least until he heard Selina admit, “She said she remembered some things, what Lian did must have triggered some memories.”

Red stood suddenly, “I know where she’d go.”

Their protests rang in his ears as he stalked away, taking a Telepad to just outside Metropolis. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears as he approached the house he and Kat had made a home.

He was right.

She was there, sitting on the stoop of the house they’d owned together, her chin resting on leather clad knees while her hands were clutched on her head.

“Hey.” He said softly, approaching her like she was a frightened cat that might bolt away at any moment. She made a noise of acknowledgment, but didn’t look up, just staring at the still air in front of her.

Red sat next to her, about a foot of space between them, and for a long time, they just sat in silence. She was eerily still, the only thing separating her from a statue was the steady movement of her breathing. Red on the other hand was constantly shifting positions, easing some ache here and there or itching some phantom itch. He’d almost forgotten she was there when she put a hand on top of his, ever so gently. Red stared at the touch, a shiver running up his spine.

“I remember you.” She said softly, her thin fingers trailing over the veins in the back of his hand and then on to his knuckles, calloused from years of abuse. He’d hit her father with those knuckles more times than either would care to admit, but he’d never won. The man may look old and frail, but he could still kick ass when he needed to. And Red had needed his ass kicked a lot while Lian was growing up.

Three words, and his heart was pounding harder, afraid that he’d scare her away if he spoke or let his flesh tremble under her questing fingers. Red gathered the courage to speak anyway, trying to mirror Selina’s favorite disinterested tone, “Really?”

“Red.” She whispered, making him shiver again. “I gave you that name.” Her fingers hovered over a mark halfway up his forearm, “I gave you that scar.”

Red felt all the air leave his lungs. She really had remembered, even if they were just little things. They’d been working with the Bo staff one night after Damian had gone to sleep, and she’d whacked him so hard on the arm with the rounded end of the staff that the skin had broken in a crescent and bled all over the floor. She’d panicked and apologized for days after. Lian expressed guilt the same way, copiously and adorably.

“Yeah, you did.” He said, voice just as soft as hers had been.

She pulled on her hair a little, finally shifting from her statue pose so one leg was stretched out in front of her, her bent knee pointing ever so slightly in his direction. She sighed heavily, “I was half hoping I was just hallucinating.”

“Only half hoping?” Red asked before he could kill the words in his throat.

She smiled slightly, as if she was amused by his tone, before her face fell into deep concern again, “My life as Mina has been hell. It’s attractive to think that I’ve lived a life that hasn’t been so awful.” Another sigh, punctuated by her fingers leaving his skin, “My head is spinning. Is this how you felt...” She trailed off.

“What?” He asked, trying look at her face, but a curtain of dark hair kept her hidden.

A few minutes later, she finally spoke, the words coming out all at once, in a rush like she was afraid to say them. “Is this how you felt when you found out you were a clone?”

Red’s gut clenched. Of all the things she could have remembered, why did that have to be one of them, that night when he’d been tossed into a spiral that had taken him five years to escape? “I-I guess so.” He said finally. They were essentially the same issue, discovering that you aren’t who you thought you were. “You aren’t a clone.”

“I know.” She said flatly, turning her own hand over. The silvery scars caught his attention instantly. He hadn’t seen them on her before because after more than twenty years, the scars had lightened to the point where only moonlight appropriately outlined the difference in the skin. She spoke before he could attempt to soothe her, “Scars tell a lot about a person. They can’t be faked, and, apparently, not even the best technology can completely get rid of them. They tried. They tried so hard to get rid of Kat, but she was always there.” She finally looked up at him, her crystal blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears, “No, that’s not right. Kat was gone. You were always there.”

“Me?” Red gasped out, resisting the urge to take her face in his hands and kiss her.

She nodded, “Even when Kat was long gone and your name was too, your face was always in my head. Eventually I forced myself to ignore you, it made life easier.” She took his hand in both of hers, trailing her fingers over the gold band still in place after all those years. “I remember that I loved you, I remember Lian, feeling her, holding her, loving everything she did, but I don’t think I’m capable of those things anymore.” She tore away from him, halfway down the street before he got the nerve to stop her.

“Kat!” She stumbled, barely staying upright, frozen in the middle of the street.

Red walked up behind her, slowly so he didn’t scare her away, “I have faith in you.”

Kat looked up at his face, “Why?”

He almost laughed, it was such a silly question in his mind, and he couldn’t think of any way to convince her. There weren’t any words to describe what he felt for her, and how amazing he’d felt since he’d found out she was alive. For a few days, he’d though about how terrible it was going to be to live in a world where she was alive but didn’t know him, looked at him with hate in her eyes. She wasn’t looking at him like that now. She looked scared, like a bird that would bolt if he made the wrong move.

He’d never seen Mina with that expression on her face.

No, the woman in front of him was Kat. He’d seen that look on her face before, right after Klarion-Damian had injected her with that syringe. She’d been terrified, and the look hadn’t gone away until they’d been assured that, despite whatever drugs had been in that Auto-injector, Lian was fine.

He did the only thing he could think to do, and wrapped his arms around her.

Kat gasped softly, but after a few seconds, she relaxed against him, clenching her fists in his shirt. After a few minutes, he realized she was crying. He kissed the top of her head and held her tighter, rocking side to side slowly, “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t cry. We’ll figure this all out together.”

Her hands slid around his back and she held him just as tight as she was holding him, “I don’t know what together means.”

“If you give me tonight, I can show you.” Red blurted, kicking himself for being so brash. He had no idea what she’d been through all those years, no idea how she would react to such a brash statement.

She tipped her chin up, cheeks still stained with tears, but the fear was gone. “Okay.” Red led her back to the house, sensing her surprised hesitation until he slid a key into the lock, “You kept the house?”

Red nodded, “Well, your dad kept it. Property values in this area have soared in the last eighteen years, but I’ve never even had to defend keeping it to your father. Your mother comes by every so often to make sure the house is clean. Everything is pretty much exactly how it was the day we left it.”

Kat hovered in the doorway, “You and Lian haven’t lived here?”

He shook his head, “No, it upset Lian too much. She could feel you in the house, but you weren’t there. She screamed for two days, and then I couldn’t take it anymore. She hasn’t been back since. I offered it to her when she got married, said I’d have it emptied out, but she refused pretty much before I finished my sentence.”

“She’s married?” Kat asked, wracking her brain, trying to remember if she’d heard anyone talking about it.

“Yeah, to the time traveller...” Red said before Kat cut him off.

“Bart Allen.” She finished, looking a little bit pleased that she remembered the name. “She could feel me in the house?”

Red nudged her gently inside, not wanting to draw more attention than they already had to the usually empty house. He closed the door before he responded, “She’s an empath, a very strong one. J’onn says she’s got the strongest empathic ability of any human he’s come in contact with. It was terrible when she was a baby, and a hundred times worse after you died. We couldn’t touch her without flooding her head with our own grief. She was colicky when we weren’t touching her too, getting it even from a distance. Actually, for a few weeks after...you left, Bart was the only person who could hold Lian. He’d known her in his future, and he knew how to keep his emotions from her. He taught those closest to her before he put himself in a cryotube. Lian found him three years ago, and they’ve been inseparable since.”

“They find each other like we do?”

“What?” Red stuttered, staring at the woman looking around at everything like a small child.

“I remember finding you the day I told you I was pregnant.” Kat said softly, not looking at him, but trailing her fingers across one of the framed pictures on the wall. “I wasn’t tracking you, I just woke up from a nap and knew you were in the city. I got dressed, armed, told Damian I was going out, and just started driving. I don’t exactly remember, but I remember knowing that it wasn’t the first time I’d done that.”

“You never told me that.” Red whispered.

Kat hummed softly, “From what I remember, Kat Harper spent a lot of time pretending to be normal. I wouldn’t have mentioned anything like that.” She paused again, fingers hovering in front of Damian’s diploma, “How did Lian get such a powerful Metagene? I was totally incapacitated in seconds. You don’t have a Metagene, and all I have is the gift of being a lab rat for different ways to kill someone.”

Red took her hand, drawing her attention to his face, “I don’t know. No one does, she’s just special.”

The tiniest hint of a smile flickered onto her face, and it was enough to send his heart hammering in his chest, “She is, isn’t she? Do you think she hates me?”

“No.” He answered instantly, but he wasn’t an empath or a telepath, he really had no clue what their daughter was feeling or thinking. He backpedaled as delicately as possible, “Lian’s angry, but she’s got a good heart, your heart.”

The echo of a smile turned sad. “That heart was bled out of me a long time ago.”

“No it wasn’t.” Red insisted, “If it was, you would have killed Lian the moment she got in your way.”

She stared open mouthed at him, finally smiling fully, “You’re insane.”

“Maybe.” Red said, grinning at her.

Kat rolled her eyes, rubbing her face with her hands, “I’m the one that’s insane. I can only half remember a life that was real, and half of a life that was a lie.” She bit her lip, “I don’t remember ever feeling as safe as I do right now. Isn’t that crazy? I don’t understand it, but I feel like I’m home, like this is my home.” Kat moved her hand in his, linking their fingers, and whispered, “You are my home. That’s such an odd feeling.”

“Am I still a psycho?” Red asked her, drifting closer to her.

She nodded, grinning, “You did track me down and kidnap me because you were so sure I was your dead wife. Pretty crazy. I mean, turns out you were right, but still, pretty psycho.” She finally brought her other hand to him, tracing it along his jawline, “ When Crane would touch me, I’d see you in my head, for the longest time. It was like he knew though, every time I imagined he was you, he’d beat me after.” He stood perfectly still, keeping his anger and disgust off his face as she touched a finger to his lips, her intent obvious to him. “You’re older than I remember you being, but you’re still such a beautiful man. Would it be completely insane of me to want to make one memory that’s mine?”

“Not at all.” Red whispered, lips just inches over hers, closing the distance in seconds.

* * *

_"How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around?_   
_I can't decide if I'll let you save my life or if I'll drown_   
  
_I hope that you see right through my walls_   
_I hope that you catch me 'cause I'm already falling_   
_I'll never let a love get so close_   
_You put your arms around me and I'm home_   
  
_The world is coming down on me and I can't find a reason to be loved_   
_I never wanna leave you but I can't make you bleed if I'm alone_   
  
_You put your arms around me_   
_And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go..._   
  
_I hope that you see right through my walls_   
_I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling_   
_I'll never let a love get so close_   
_You put your arms around me and I'm home_   
  
_I tried my best to never let you in to see the truth_   
_And I've never opened up_   
_I've never truly loved 'til you put your arms around me_   
_And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go"_

**Arms**  
By: Christina Perri

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is probably gonna be a little more sexy-graphic than any of my previous chapters, so let me know what you think of that!


	10. This Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sexy times! So if you don't want to read it, you can skip the part between the two lines of *************'s! It's not just all sex though! Plot begins to move forward in this chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long! I got super writer's block on this chapter and couldn't write on it for about two months. I pretty much wrote this entire chapter in the last two days!

**This Love:**

Kat froze under his touch for an instant, but just as quickly sank into his touch, kissing him back fiercely. She had been fearing the chance that she’d see Crane when Red touched her, but she didn’t. Elation filled her, she slammed his back against the wall, and started fumbling with the top most button on his shirt.

 

Red stilled her hands, “Wait.” He made her look at him. “I don’t want to hurt you. Is this what you want?”

 

Kat nodded, “Yes. I went through Hell as Mina, but I know I’m Kat now. I want to know that every memory I have of us together hasn’t been tainted by Crane abusing me.”

 

Red smiled, kissing her gently before pulling away and toeing his shoes off, “Okay then, but bedroom, not hallway.”

 

“Okay.” She echoed back, letting him lead her by the hand to the door she instinctively knew was theirs. The room to the right had been Lian’s. She would check that out later. Now, all she wanted was Red. She wanted to memorize every change on his face from the one in her memory.

 

Red stood awkwardly in front of the bed, Kat sitting on it, staring at him. She moved first, grasping his hands and pulling him closer to her so that he was bent at the waist with his hands on her waist, linking her lips with his and letting her hands wander over his back. He became acutely aware of her presence, just inches from his spine, a faint essence of sweat on her skin sending her scent through to his brain.

 

A visceral shock went through Red as he realized that he hadn’t experienced that scent of hers for nearly twenty years. Twenty years that felt like an eternity on one hand, and on the other like merely a few days. Somehow, now that he wasn’t looking at Kat, worrying over her every movement, he was able to react to her presence on a more instinctive level, one that felt all too much like how he’d known she’d be there, sitting on the porch of the house they’d once made a home. The smell of her, the light touch of her fingers on his skin as she stroked through the short hairs at the back of his neck, the sudden awareness of the textures of her clothes, brought back overwhelming sensory memories of what it was to be in her arms; naked, writhing and sweating with her.

It was as if a locked door had been suddenly thrown open. The power of those memories was akin to an assault, and for a second, contemplating what was about to follow, Red’s legs gave way beneath him.

 

His knee’s hit the edge of the bed and she was suddenly laying flat, but he wasn’t steady enough to stop himself from hitting the floor, his socked feet not having any traction on the polished wood floors. She was steady enough. Kat moved her right hand to rest on his ribcage just under his arm and hauled him far enough up the bed that his knees could support him. Red let his head hang, silent for a few seconds, merely inhaling, shakily, against the curve between her shoulder and neck.

 

Tense for a moment, Red took a deep breath. Then he allowed himself to relax into the new position, kneeling on the bed with Kat’s body under him. Eyes pinched closed, he still couldn’t see her but he could feel her trembling against him, ever so slightly, heard the way she struggled to control her voice when she spoke. “It’s all right, Red. I’ve got you.”

 

Red laughed shakily, “Are you sure?”

 

Her eyes widened slightly as she replied, barely above a whisper. “I’m sure.” Crystal blue eyes bore into him, “Are you?”

 

Another shaky laugh, “Yes.”

 

Silence was suspended between them for all of a second as her eyes searched his. 

 

But when she found nothing but acquiescence, Kat was transformed. Restraint was replaced with an almost violent urgency. She grabbed him and suddenly he was on his back and she was steadying herself over him, reaching for the zipper of the red hoodie he was wearing and jerking it down so fast he was pretty sure she ripped the metal from the fabric.

 

Red scrambled for his belt so she wouldn’t rip that too. Kat stripped her own jacket off, and then her lips were pressing against his again; he gasped into their kiss, pulling his belt free and tossing it across the room. There seemed to be a lull in the undressing that had Red off-kilter, but he adapted quickly, allowing himself to run his hands up and down the exposed skin of her arms as they kissed.

*******************************************

He wanted to see how far she’d let him take control, and started to strip his shirt off, arching his back up to remove the fabric. Kat growled, biting his lip and bringing her hands to join his, breaking the biting kiss just so they could get the shirt over his head and she could drop it off the bed behind her.

 

The rest of their clothes ended up in the same pile.

 

Red started to roll them back over, but Kat stopped him, a slight panic in the back of her eyes, “Let me be on top. I don’t want to hurt you if I freak out.”

 

Red brushed some of her dark hair out of her eyes and smiled softly at her as he settled back onto the pillows on the bed, “Sure, whatever makes you feel comfortable, but don’t worry about hurting me.”

 

Kat climbed up him, kissing him gently, “What did I ever do to get back here? It’s like a dream. I don’t want to wake up if it is.”

 

Red grasped her hips and aligned them, but let go as he said softly, “Kat, you are awake. Promise. You’re awake, and you’re right where you belong.”

 

She settled her arms on either side of his head and didn’t say anything, preparing herself mentally by staring at his face. Kat gasped softly as she lowered herself, taking him deep into her body. She caught his murmured response just before she silenced them both with another of the hard kisses she seemed so fond of. Within seconds the kiss became tender and languid and Red delighted in how much she’d relaxed. He was afraid she’d want it hard and fast when all he wanted to do was to express his love with gentleness. Both his arms went around her and he cradled her close to him, and she let him, finally lowering her torso so that her breasts touched his chest. Her hips moved slowly, driving them both farther and farther to that edge.

 

He could tell it wasn’t enough. He’d held back, let her lead, kept himself completely still so he wouldn’t scare her off or upset her, but neither of them would finish if she kept at the pace she’d set, he remembered enough of the past to know that. He took the chance, thrusting his hips up to meet hers. Kat froze for an instant, staring at his face. He watched as a tendril of pleasure flitted across her face and she relaxed back into him, and they resumed the pace of their lovemaking.

 

She looked unsure of herself, nervous. Helplessly out of control. Then, once again, her head was tucked against his shoulder, her mouth latching onto the soft flesh just below his earlobe, and he was fucking up into her hard enough to make her tremble with every thrust.

 

Red tried to hold on until she came, and he barely held on long enough to allow her to reach a climax seconds before him. As soon as she began to come, Kat assumed a viciously hard grip on both his shoulders, and Red let his limbs go slack, hands resting limply against her back, luxuriating in the delicious release that was pulsing out of and through him. Red managed to sigh, “Oh, Kat,” against her cheek before her control seemed to finally snap completely.

 

She came with a violence that he couldn’t remember Kat experiencing when they were together before. Her entire body was racked with the convulsions, her heart pounding so hard that he could feel it shuddering against his own chest. Yet she barely made a sound, only steady, heavy panting as she regained her breath.

 

Red held her throughout her recovery, caressed the nape of her neck and pressed warm kisses to her cheek and the edge of her mouth, murmured her name over and over, and told her how terribly he’d missed her.

************************************************

After a few moments of merely allowing herself to be held, Kat’s frame stiffened. She pulled away, withdrawing him from her body. She stared into his eyes for a couple of seconds, caressing the side of his face with curled fingers. Then she stood, standing in the pile of their clothes like a child, unsure of what to do next.

 

Red held a hand out to her, sitting up, not keeping the frown off his face, “Hey, come here. You’re okay.” She was hesitant, but she let him pull her back onto the bed and slide her under the covers. Kat grabbed his hand when he went to get off the bed, terror in her eyes, “Hang on, I’ll be right back.” He kissed her, “I won’t leave you.”

 

She let him go, but he saw the relief on her face when he came back into the bedroom from the bathroom. He cleaned them both up, moving slowly so she relaxed back into the bed, her eyelids heavy. “I didn’t see him.” Kat whispered.

 

Red stilled, his washcloth covered hand on her inner thigh, “What?”

 

“I was afraid I’d see Crane while we...” She trailed off, shaking her head slightly, “I didn’t. It was just you and me. It was amazing. I haven’t done that in years.”

 

“Done...” He stopped, looking at the nervous look on her face. He bit his lip before leaning in to kiss her again, “Glad I could help relieve some tension.”

 

“You’re so gentle.” She whispered, curling into herself as he moved away, a tiny smile on her face.

 

“Because I love you.” Red said instantly.

 

Part of him expected her to snap something venomous at him, but she didn’t, instead she just looked solemn, “I don’t deserve your love.”

 

Red slid under the covers with her, taking one of her hands and kissing the back of her knuckles, “Of course you do. You put up with my shit while I was getting my head screwed on straight, it’s my turn to do the same for you.”

 

“You didn’t kill people because it was fun.” She said sadly.

 

He took a deep breath, “You did what you had to. If it makes you feel better, you’ve always been a little dark. You get that from your parents, Lian gets it from you.”

 

“I’m not sure she gets anything from me.” She answered immediately.

 

Red scoffed, stretching his arm out above his head, “That’s not true. She’s so much like you. I mean we’re pretty alike, but so much of her is you. Enough that we don’t always get along.”

 

Kat groaned, “How the hell am I supposed to learn to be a mother if you aren’t even good at being a father?”

 

Red raised an eyebrow at her, “Excuse me?”

 

She snorted, “Sorry, just messing with you. It’s just...I remember being the mother to an infant. That’s a hell of a lot different than being a mother to a married nineteen year old. Where do I even start? I don’t care what you think. I’m pretty sure she hates me.”

 

“She doesn’t.”

 

Kat buried her face in the pillows for a second, groaning, “How can you say that? I think zapping my brain and leaving me unconscious is a pretty good sign of hate.”

 

Red couldn’t help but smile at her, “It was an accident. Like I said earlier, her Metegene’s strong. She doesn’t have the best control. She’s working on it, but...”

 

“I could help her.” Kat said suddenly.

 

“What?” Red asked, confused by the sudden excitement in her eyes.

 

Kat sat up, “Control. That’s something I’m good at. I can help her. That’s my way in. I can...”

 

Red chuckled, slipping his hands to her hips and sliding her back down, “She zapped you because you two are psychically linked. Have been since she was born. You’re her mother. That’s your way in.”

 

She stroked her fingers across his forearms, “I’m not used to not know exactly what to do, what’s expected of me.”

 

“You knew what to expect earlier.” Red said, and immediately wished he hadn’t.

 

Kat smiled though, touching a hand to his red hair, “Yeah, I remember that, Red. Hard not to. I’m actually pretty surprised Lian is an only child. We were pretty prolific.” Heat lit in her eyes, “I was nervous before, think we could go again?”

 

Red laughed heartily, “I’d love to, but, the man you remember being raring to go half an hour after the first time retired about five years ago. Need a little longer.” They kissed for a while, until he was ready again, and the second time around was better than the first because she didn’t hold herself so tightly, like she was afraid of herself. She was fearless.

 

He woke up a few hours later and cleaned up a little, a habit he’d picked up after they’d moved into Bruce’s mansion. He felt bad about having Alfred clean up after him so he’d done his best to be as neat as possible. He opened the top drawer on the bedside table to get the alarm clock out and stared at the innocent looking box sitting next to it.

 

They hadn’t used condoms. Sure, the box was almost twenty years old and the contents useless, but still. He really really was the least intelligent man on the planet sometimes. They’d given her a completely clean bill of health while she’d been in custody, so that meant no STD’s, but that also meant that everything else was working correctly too.

 

He wasn’t as young as he’d once been, but now she was significantly younger. Eight years younger to be exact. She wasn’t forty three, she was thirty five. Women had kids at thirty five all the time. What the hell had he been thinking? Well, admittedly, he hadn’t been thinking with his brain. He’d been celibate for seventeen years, so he’d been a little preoccupied with feeling her skin under his hands and not at all eager to put up more barriers between them. Not that they’d been stellar at using protection anyway. Lian was proof of that.

 

He looked at Kat, sighing. She was sleeping soundly, even though her body was curled tight, protectively. He was afraid to touch her. She was naked, but he had a sneaking suspicion that she was more than capable of making him hurt very badly, without any need for a weapon besides her body. He looked out the window, wondering what life would have been like if she’d never gone away and he was waking up on this morning with her beside him like any other.

 

He could imagine that Lian wouldn’t be married already. No, Kat would have convinced her to wait just a little while longer, and the two would have gone over every detail in excruciating detail with Selina advising over a glass of wine. Lian had hired a wedding planner and let Selina make most of the decisions. 

 

Kat startled him by thumping a hand on his chest, “Stop. I can hear you thinking. Sleep. I can’t sleep unless you are.”

 

“That’s sweet.” Red chuckled.

 

Kat glared, “No, not sweet. You’re so loud when you’re awake. Hush.” He obeyed with a languid nod, his heart pounding with sheer joy when she pinned him to the bed with her body, settling her head above his heart and draping one arm and a leg over him.

 

Just before dawn, Kat woke up, head spinning. She slunk out of the house silently, dressing swiftly in the darkness of the front porch. She’d laid in bed for a few minutes, warm in Red’s arms, and she’d panicked. On the porch, her head was a little clearer. He played it off, but she wasn’t good enough for him, not to mention how insufficient she was for the fiery little red haired girl she’d half stalked for years.

 

She returned to the church attic she’d been sleeping in and searched through the newspapers she’d collected as props over the last few months, scouring the words for any mention of her family. Her family. It was such an odd concept. As Mina, she’d never had a family, not like the one Kat had. But she was Kat. She couldn’t totally believe it, couldn’t put her faith in it, no matter how steady and sure Red seemed, there was no guarantee that it would last. If Lian did really hate her, then she’d never get that family. She had to be worthy of it in the first place.

 

She had to be worthy of Red.

 

A blush colored her face, she’d have to work pretty hard to be worthy of him. But being Mina had taught her about the value of using your assets to get what you want. She’d heard them talking about the Light during her incarceration. The Light had made her, manipulated her since the day she was born. It was her turn. She would help bring down the Light, the first step in making herself worthy of Red’s love, to make everything up to her parents, and to show Lian that she understood what the girl’d been trying to tell her. Kat cleaned up her things. She wouldn’t be back to the little church. She had a room at the Light headquarters, but she rarely used it. She would now.

 

A few people greeted her with slight waves, but most ignored her. As a rule, most people that lived in and worked out of that building kept to themselves. The ones that did just wanted sex. Mina would have indulged a few of them from time to time, but it had never been satisfying. No wonder, her body remembered what being with Red was like even if her brain hadn’t.

 

“Mina, darling. You’re looking well.” A voice said from behind her.

 

She turned, smiling. “Zazzala. Thank you. I took a few days off. I feel refreshed.”

 

The woman stroked her hair. As Mina, she’d been rather close to the woman, fond even, but now she remembered when they’d first met, when she’d nearly killed Lian before she’d been born. It took everything in her not to rip the woman’s arm from her body. That was a Mina instinct, not a Kat one. She’d need to work on that. She couldn’t keep killing people who upset her. Kat schooled her features, “You’re heading somewhere?”

 

Zazzala nodded, “A staff meeting. If you’d like to join me, I believe we were intending to call you in. You’ve saved us the trouble.” Kat followed without another word.

 

The headquarters was disguised as a typical office building, hence the fact that she’d forced herself into black pants, high heels and a satin blue shirt. Oddly enough she was more comfortable now in the outfit than she had been the last time she’d worn it. With her Kat memories she remembered how to relax in something other than leather pants, so she walked confidently into the room Zazzala led her to.

 

The room was dark, light being cast from an array of computer screens. Zazzala sat, and Kat stood behind her, putting one foot up on the wall. She would show no fear. A large figure stepped out of the shadows, “Ah, the lovely Mrs. Crane. So glad of you to join us.” She kept her mouth shut, glaring at the man she didn’t know except by reputation. He smiled grotesquely, “And I’d heard you were friendly to your superiors.”

 

She scoffed, “Mr. Savage, I’ve got no reason to be friendly. I’m just here to do my job and get paid. Tell me what to steal, who to kill, and perhaps we can play nice after.”

 

His smile widened, and her stomach rolled as he growled, “Oh, I plan on it.”

 

* * *

_"Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in_   
_And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will_   
_Skies grew darker, currents swept you out again_   
_And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone_   
  
_In silent screams,_   
_in wildest dreams_   
_I never dreamed of this_   
  
_This love is good, this love is bad_   
_This love is alive back from the dead_   
_These hands had to let it go free_   
_And this love came back to me_   
  
_Tossing, turning, struggled through the night with someone new_   
_And I could go on and on, on and on_   
_Lantern burning, flickered in my mind for only you_   
_But you're still gone, gone, gone_   
  
_Been losing grip,_   
_oh, sinking ships_   
_You showed up just in time"_

**This Love**

By: Taylor Swift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That song is seriously what got the creative juices flowing. It totally fits Red/Kat, and I listened to it on repeat while I wrote. It's seriously beautiful, so go take a listen if you haven't heard it yet!
> 
> If you're still reading, please give me a shout!


	11. Red Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, so this took way longer than I was anticipating. Really sorry! Things are coming along nicely though, so bear with me! This chapter is basically the Lian/Kat show, but you get some reunions you guys have been asking for, so I hope you like it!

Lian Harper woke up to a pounding headache. She felt Bart's hands on her shoulders, "Stay put, you've been out for two days. Only my wife could be unconscious longer because she had a temper tantrum than when she was stabbed and her lung deflated."

She spoke, her voice hoarse, "You're mad."

"Shit, Li. You're the empath. You tell me." He growled.

Yup, he was angry. Very angry. She could feel her father down the hall, and Alfred. So they'd brought her home. Lian opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling she'd slept under most of her life. "I'm home."

Bart leaned over her, scowling, "Yeah, less people for you to mess with."

"My mother..." Lian asked, trailing off because it hurt to talk.

Bart brushed her cheek with one hand, holding a cup of water with a straw to her mouth so she could wet her throat, "She's fine. Your grandmother sprung her and she vanished. Your dad tracked her down and they talked. Sounds like she's remembering some things."

"Really?" She said, joy blossoming in her head.

Bart grimaced, "Stop that."

Lian realized she was leaking her emotions out and winced apologetically, "Sorry."

He sighed, "Doesn't bother me, but if you use your power on Alfred at the moment, he may kill us both. Old man is livid with you. You're going to be kissing his ancient English ass for a long time. Your Gramps is about the same, but he's pleased about your mom, so shouldn't take him too long to forgive you."

"Great."

"I think the only one not mad at you is your grandmother." Bart continued, ignoring her groaned remark.

"She loves me." Lian rebuked.

Bart rolled his eyes, "We all love you, she's just crazy enough to be proud of you for brain zapping not only yourself but your amnesiac mother as well."

Lian hummed, "Grams is always the exception to the rule."

"Nah, the woman's certifiable. I'm telling you now, those damned cats of hers are not allowed in our future children's nursery. And she'll only be allowed in for good behavior." Bart told her, only half joking.

"What ever you say, dear."

Bart kissed her, grinning, "That's the spirit!"

"Don't get used to it." She warned, secretly counting down the days until they'd been married for five years and she could kick her birth control to the curb. Based on her maternal history, she'd have a hard time being a mom, but Bart would be an amazing dad, more than enough to coach her through the first little while, she'd catch on soon enough.

He sighed dramatically before sobering, "I'm glad you're okay. Had me worried for a minute there. Don't think I could breathe until Raven told me you were still in there."

Lian pulled him back for another kiss, "I'm sorry."

Inches from her lips, he smiled, "I know. Asking you not to do it again is a waste of my breath though, isn't it?"

She raised one eyebrow and looked away, "Maybe."

Bart pressed his lips to hers briskly, "I'm gonna go grab you something to eat. I'm sure you're starving."

"You got that." She muttered, sipping water from her cup and looking to her left, "Shit, how long's she been like that?"

Bart looked over at Raven, who was slumped in the chair by the window Lian frequented with books. "Um...hour or so. I'm not waking her up. I value my junk way too much."

Lian waved a hand, "Get her food too, please. I'll wake her up." He was gone in a split second and Lian lay back on her bed, saying her friend's name once, "Rae."

The older girl opened one violet eye, "Idiot."

Lian sighed, "I deserved that."

Raven sat up, stretching subtly, "We tried to tell you that you needed to train with your Metagene more."

"I know." Lian whispered, an apology in her voice.

Raven stood, too graceful to ever pass for human, and joined Lian on the bed, a book in her hand, "We start tomorrow."

Lian nodded in acquiescence, "Okay, Rae. Go easy on me?"

Raven smirked, "Never."

Lian's retort was cut off by Bart's return, so she scooted up the bed to make room for him to sit close to her, "What took you so long?"

"Ah, can it, Princess." He groaned, handing both females food.

Selina breezed in a few minutes later, getting Lian dressed and tutting over her for a beat before breezing right back out, leaving all three of them a little breathless. Raven shook her head, "That woman..."

Lian scowled, "Are Gramps and I the only two people that actually like her?"

"Pretty much." Raven drawled.

Bart shrugged, "She and your mom were patching things up, before. Maybe they can get back there."

"We'd have to find her first." Lian sighed

Raven glared at her, hissing her name in warning. "Lian."

"No, Rae. I know I've got training, but that's tomorrow." She shoved the last forkful of beans into her mouth and pulled some shoes on, "I'm gonna go talk to my dad." The other two moved to follow her, but she held up a hand, "Alone. I am capable of doing things on my own."

"If you say so." Bart said, his eyes sparking with amusement. Nothing excited him more than when she used that tone of voice.

She kissed him once, hard, "Hush you. I'm talking to my dad. Between the two of us, even my track record is better in regards to discussions with him."

It didn't go anywhere. "Dad, seriously, we have to find her!"

"No, Li."

"Why not?" She asked, very confused.

Red sighed, "We talked, she's remembering some things."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with me not finding her?" Lian asked, huffing.

He shrugged, "You don't need to worry about where she is, Lian. She'll come back."

Panic welled in her, spiking further when her fingers brushed the crocheted bracelet of Mariah's she'd mysteriously ended up with. "You're not listening to me! I need to find her! Now!" Lian yelled, drawing the attention of those around them, mostly a glare from Alfred as he directed one of the maids in her job.

"What's gotten in to you?" Red asked, staring at the forceful young woman in front of him like she was a stranger rather than his daughter.

Lian sat back on her heels, staring back at him with her mother's blue eyes. "I could say the same to you." She swallowed hard, turning to leave.

Red tried to grab her arm, "Shit, Li, wait."

Lian spun back around, using every ounce of control not to lose it on him, "No, Dad. I don't know why you won't tell me what you two talked about, and why that means that we don't need to find her, but I don't care anymore. You've made it perfectly clear where you stand on this matter. I won't bother you with it again. I'm just going to go find someone who will help me."

She was gone before he could stop her. That was the unfortunate downside to having brought her home to Wayne Manor. She had her car there, and she and Bart had stripped it of every technological method that could be used to track it. His damned son-in-law had even designed a shield of sorts, that kept the car invisible to satellite imaging. Really it was a microchip that recognized when the car was being viewed, and erased the data before it could transmit properly. It was more than enough though.

Lian drove into Gotham furiously, faster than she should have, but nowhere near fast enough to outrun Bart. He hopped into the passenger seat while she was driving ninety miles and hour, and just put his hand on her thigh, projecting his own emotions onto her.

Finding Damian wasn't too hard, especially with the empathic tag Lian used to find him. Bart had calmed her considerably by the time they came across him in the street. "Hey, Lamb Chop." He greeted with a smile to Bart.

Lian smiled at her uncle, melting into the hug he offered readily. "Hey."

He smoothed her hair down, and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "What's got you so upset? You're leaking anxiety a little." He looked over her head at Bart, who made a face back at him.

Lian cursed her limited control, grimacing as she pulled away from him, "Sorry."

Damian shrugged, "I'm super chill, a little anxiety will just keep me on my toes. We having dinner tonight?"

"Could we?" Lian said, brightening considerably.

He slung an arm around her shoulders, "Sure thing, Lamb Chop. There's a new place that just opened up around the corner I've been dying to give a try."

"Sound's perfect." She said truthfully, linking her fingers between Bart's and tugging him along.

Lian managed to keep her mouth shut until dessert. Between bites of fried ice cream, she begged her uncle to find her mother. He wove his spoon between his fingers idly, "Your father said no?" She nodded, and Bart rolled his eyes, knowing where his old friend was headed before he even said, with a slow grin, "Even if we weren't talking about my sister, if your dad's against it, I'm all for it. I'll find her, Lamb Chop, for the both of us."

"Thank you." She gasped, breathless with relief.

Damian shrugged, "Eh, all I'm doing is tracking down my lunatic sister and giving her your phone number. Not too difficult for a man of my caliber."

Bart laughed heartily while Lian glared skeptically at her uncle. Bart stood, smiling, "Seriously, thanks, man. This one here's overworked herself, so we'll leave the tracking to you." Lian started to protest, but they ignored her, "We're going away for the weekend."

Lian shut up at the look on Bart's face, and Damian mocked a gag before leaving the two on their own. He returned to his hide out and began scouring for Kat, finally catching a street camera shot of her in Star City. He hijacked a Zeta tube to get there, ignoring the fact that, officially, he had permission to use them.

Damian slid into the shadows behind the woman, and only the slightest shift of her body gave away that she knew he was there. "Hey, Kat."

"I'm sorry." She said softly, and her voice was all Kat, the weird accent that had been lingering on her tongue while they'd held her captive was gone.

He leaned against the railing next to her, wondering why she was even at this building. It wasn't a great vantage point, and the luxurious flat they were on the balcony was essentially vacant, only used for parties a few times a month. "For what?"

Kat refused to look at him, still staring out at the bustling city, "I left you. You were my responsibility, and I left you alone." She glanced down at his wrist for a fraction of a second, "Don't bother trying to convince me you weren't alone. You were wearing a visitor wristband. Even Mom had her own ID badge. What happened?"

Damian winced, "Red needed someone to blame, and I didn't stop you before you got yourself killed. Pretty easy target. For the record, I don't blame him. I needed to learn to live on my own someday."

She finally looked at his face, her own a marble of disgust and disbelief, "You were fifteen, Damian. People learn to live on their own when they're in their twenties, not fifteen. Why the hell would Red do that?"

Her brother put one of his hands over hers, his fingers trembling ever so slightly, "Because he almost lost his entire world when you died. Without Lian, he wouldn't still be here." He squeezed her hand gently, still stuck in how surreal it felt to feel her skin so warm and alive under his. "And you struck out on your own when you were eighteen. I'm a prodigy, so I took a two and a half year head start."

Kat scoffed, shaking her head, "That's not funny."

"Sure it is, Sis."

She sucked a breath in at that. A week ago, she was Mina, then she was some strange split between Mina and Kat, and now she was Sis. Kat held onto the railing as memories assailed her. They weren't as overwhelming as the first ones had been, but she could still vividly remember when the calloused hand on top of hers had once been tiny and smooth. "Oh, Dai." She exclaimed softly, staring up at him. "You got so tall."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I did. Good thing you're still biologically a year older than me or you wouldn't be my big sister anymore." He saw the minutely crushed expression on her face and pulled her to him, hoping she didn't try to kill him again. His head was still ringing from the impact of her fist. Having just embraced Lian in a similar manner, it was easy to tell that the two females shared the same build, and an embedded tension that he could only try to ease. "Hey, Kat. I didn't mean it like that." He rested his forehead on her shoulder, vaguely remembering every hug he'd gotten from Kat when he'd wanted one from their mother. Emotion overwhelmed even him, "You will always be my sister."

She scoffed, but it had less force behind it than the one before, "I'm a killer, Damian, not to mention half crazy."

He had to laugh, just a little bit, "Oh, Kat, that makes us even more alike." He held her a bit tighter, whispering, "I am too."

She laughed, shaking in his arms and finally returning his embrace. After a bit, she stilled, humming a bit to her self, "All of this is so mad, but I have to say you make more sense to me than anything. I have to ask though: Which side are you on?"

"I'm not on either side." He answered instantly, "There's a fine line between ruthless and evil, and I have to keep an eye on it more closely than the League would like. Red or no Red."

"I want to be good." She whispered, though it seemed like an impossibility.

Damian sighed, looking older than he should have, "I do too, Kat. I'll show you how to toe that line, if you'll let me."

"Will that be enough?"

He arched an eyebrow, "For Lian?" She gave a tiny nod, "You're her mother, Kat. She's missed you for eighteen years. If you give her the time of day, she'd be overjoyed. She's the one who sent me after you, actually. Well, more truthfully, she demanded I find you and give you this." He handed her Lian's phone number, "She wants to see you."

Kat took the scrap of paper into her hand like it was something precious. "I think I'd like to see her too." Her own phone dinged at that moment, summoning her back to Metropolis for a meeting. Damian accompanied her back to Metropolis before going back home to Gotham.

Zazzala greeted her at the door of the meeting room, "There you are, we've already started. I was getting worried." Kat murmured a blasé apology, and followed the other woman into the room where a handful of villains were congregated.

Her spine tingled. Something was wrong. Instinct was telling her to run, Mina to kill.

Vandal Savage was up front, "Here we have it. Cadmus Project Felid. Our target is the fifth in the series of genetic experiments, the most complete. Most of us here will be embarking on Operation Leo shortly, but you should all be aware of the project as you will be vital to the over all success once we have Leo back in our possession." Savage gestured and a dossier appeared on the left side of the screen. But on the right side...

Kat couldn't move. The face on the right side of the screen was Lian's. She kept her own face passive. "Why this target?"

Savage stared at Lian's picture, "She's a project, and we need final results from tests that cannot be performed in the field."

"One little girl can't be hard to capture." One of the others said arrogantly.

Savage outlined why Lian would be a difficult individual to detain, but Kat could hardly pay attention. As soon as she was able, she politely escaped, and held onto her decorum until she was a block away from the building and vomited into some bushes.

She had to get to Lian before they did.

* * *

_"Oh yeah, oh yeah-ah, that gun is loaded_

_I know that I messed up a few times or watcha wanna call it_   
_I know if I fell down, you'd change the way that I saw it_   
_I put it on the line for this time only_   
_(Is that what you really want?)_

_I can't see that I got red hands, I'm colorblind singing (day-oh)_   
_Don't put the blame on me, child, the damn thing gone wild (day-oh)_   
_Never wanted to be fooling you, can't believe I was ruining you-oo_   
_(Is that what you really want?)_

_Oh yeah, oh yeah-ah, that gun is loaded_

_That gun is loaded, but it's not in my hand_   
_That gun is loaded, but it's not in my hand_   
_The fire burns, I'm not the one with the match, man_   
_That gun is loaded, but it's not in my hand."_

**Red Hands**

By: Walk Off the Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are going to get a little dicey in these next couple chapters, but not without a little Lian/Bart smut!
> 
> Anyway, your comments and Kudos are what keep me coming back to this little world, so, please, keep them coming! :)
> 
> -Jenn


	12. Elastic Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it's been so long! Hope this chapter makes up for it, and I'll say right now that the next chapter is already halfway finished.
> 
> This chapter goes back and forth between Kat and Lian quite a bit, so pay close attention to the breaks or it could be a little confusing! ;)
> 
> Anyway, thanks to everyone for sticking with me! I can't wait to see what you guys think about this installment!

Her hands were shaking when she pulled out the slip of paper her brother had given her out of her purse, and she dialed the number as she ran to her car. It rang. And rang. And rang. “Come on...” Kat hissed, dialing again.

 

Nothing, just more ringing.

 

Mina slipped through for a moment, and she almost chucked her phone over the pedestrian bridge she was standing on. She dialed the number a third time, only to get the answering machine. “Hey, it’s Lian, you know what to do! Except you, Garfield, seriously, stop leaving messages of you farting as different animals on my phone. You’re an adult.”

 

She did throw her phone then, and it skittered across the bridge’s asphalt coming to rest  a couple yards away from her and nearly hitting a woman and her child walking by. Kat groaned in frustration and dove after it, hoping she hadn’t ruined the damned thing. The screen was cracked, but it seemed to be functioning still. She flicked through her contacts, but she knew she couldn’t trust any of them, not even the women she’d once called her aunts. They had lied to Mina because they were afraid that one wrong word would get Kat killed. Cowards. Their fondness for the child who’d been raised by Selina Kyle had killed her respect for them now that she knew the truth. They had known her identity, and had hidden it from her. They had kept her from her daughter. And now, because she was ignorant, Lian was in terrible danger. 

* * *

Lian was staring at the ceiling of her bedroom, splayed out on her back muttering, “Azarath Metrion Zinthos.”

 

Bart appeared in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe and smiling wryly at his wife, “I’m not sure that’s how that’s supposed to work.”

 

Lian groaned at him, rolling slowly onto her side so she could glare at him, “Raven just almost killed me.” She glanced at the watch on her wrist, “And I’m still supposed to meditate for another half hour.”

 

Bart walked towards her, in her favorite way. He was amazingly fast but when he walked slowly, he looked like some sort of exotic cat going after prey, and it never failed to get Lian’s blood racing. He was at the side of the bed, but an instant later, she was on her back with him on top of her, scraping his teeth along the side of her neck, “You’ll be glad to know I got you off on good behavior then.”

 

“Really?” Lian rasped, trying to keep her eyes from rolling into the back of her head so she could focus completely on his words not just his actions.

 

“M-hmm.” He hummed positively, grinding himself once against her with a groan, and receiving a gasp from her in return. “We’re going on vacation, just the two of us to a private beach. Oh, Li, think of all the trouble we can get up to.”

 

Lian shivered pleasantly, “I can imagine.” Using a small bit of her remaining strength, she flipped them both over, and braced herself over him, “What brought this on?”

 

“I don’t like seeing you unhappy.” Bart said softly, kissing her.

 

Lian smiled at him, “How did I get so lucky to find you?”

 

“We’re psychically connected because you are a possessive freak of nature who can somehow use her powers unconsciously to transcend time even though you barely have conscious control.” Bart drawled, grinning.

 

Lian settled her weight on him, the apex of her thighs warm against his stomach, “You’re being mean.”

 

Bart’s grin grew impossibly wide, “I’m all yours, Li.”

 

She kissed him firmly, without a doubt the one in charge of their coupling. She stopped just before they joined, tilting her head, “Wait, you said vacation. I need to pack!”

 

“Li!” Bart lunged after her as she fled their bed, but he missed her. He looked down at his left hand and sighed, “Well old friend, looks like it’s just you and me for a bit.”

 

Lian came back into the bedroom a couple of minutes later, “Really, Bart? You couldn’t wait on me for five minutes?”

 

“Don’t worry, Li, there’s more where this came from. Gotta love the speedster refractory period.” He told her, trying to gauge if she would join him again.

 

“Not a chance. Next time we have sex, it’s going to be on the private beach you promised me, and there’s going to be copious amounts of alcohol.” She said firmly.

 

Bart whined, “Babe, you know I can’t get drunk.”

 

Lian chuckled, “Whoever said I was going to let you drink any of the alcohol. I was thinking more along the lines of me licking every drop off those abs of yours.”

 

Bart stood at attention by her side after redressing himself, and scooped her up into his arms, “Where’s your bag? We need to get to that beach stat.”

 

Four hours and a private jet later, the two laid out on a towel, mostly sated and relishing in the rays of sunlight flickering against their bare skin.

 

Lian was pensive though, and Bart could feel it, “What’s the matter, Li?”

 

She gave him a tiny smile, “I don’t mean to screw up the mood, but I can’t stop thinking about my mother.”

 

Bart brushed some sand out of her hair, “I know you can’t.”

 

“Why would she leave? Grams said she remembered. She talked to dad, and even Uncle Damian said she spoke to him when he found her. Why won’t she talk to me?” Lian bemoaned, trying not to work herself up into tears.

 

For once, he had an answer that he hoped would satisfy his wife, “She has two lives in her head, Li. Last she remembers, you were a baby she’d just learned died in an alternate universe, but now, you’re fully mobile and cognizant, and you’re expecting her to know how to handle that. Add that to the fact that she’s been a killer for the better part of two decades, and I don’t blame her for staying away from you. She’s trying to protect you. Be patient.”

 

Lian stared at him with a soft pout etched onto her lips, “You’re probably right, but I don’t need protection from her. She’s my mother. Even when she didn’t remember me, she didn’t really hurt me.”

 

He quirked an eyebrow up at her, “She punctured and deflated your lung, Lian.”

 

“So? She could have killed me.” She quipped.

 

Bart rolled his eyes, kissing her deeply, “Only in your family is not killing a family member considered an act of affection.”

 

Lian shrugged, even as he rolled to be on top of her, “I don’t kill you, do I?”

 

“Nope!” He chirped, kissing her jaw.

 

Lian ran her hands up from his bare ass to the back of his neck, massaging gently, “You know, you’re gonna sunburn in a really bad way if we stay out here too much longer.”

 

Bart nodded against her skin, halfway down to her right breast, “So what?”

 

Lian pulled him back up to her face by the short hairs on the back of his neck, and kissed him, “So, it’ll really suck if you’re in too much pain for the next two days to properly enjoy our vacation.”

 

“You know what sucks? That you don’t sunburn. You’re a redhead, but you just get this sun-kissed glow that makes me mad and want to lick you all over at the same time.” He quipped, licking a line up her jugular.

 

“I get it from Grams.” She replied breathlessly before ordering him to take them inside.

 

She was curled up against his side on the sofa an hour later, watching him play on the gaming console that was linked to the Titan’s Tower. “Want a turn?” He asked.

 

Lian shook her head, “Nah, I like watching you kick ass with no risk of actual bodily harm. It’s sexy.”

 

“Is everything I do sexy?” Bart asked, grinning at her.

 

She rolled her eyes at him, “Not everything, but pretty close. Don’t get too cocky. Garfield’s about to snipe you.” Bart jerked his attention back to the television and Lian stood to move over to the kitchen, beyond ready for a snack that wasn’t from Bart’s speedster supply, “You want something?”

 

“Sandwich? Let me beat Gar, and I’ll come help.” He told her, focused on the screen.

 

“Okay.” She said doubtfully, knowing that he was going to be enraptured in the game for a while longer. As she suspected, he didn’t look away from the screen until she sat his sandwich down in front of him.

 

He grimaced, watching her sit stiffly next to him, “Sorry, babe.”

 

Lian shrugged, “No biggie. I’m still trying to recover from earlier, so helping me in the kitchen wouldn’t have gotten you any anyway. You outdid yourself.”

 

He made a noise of self-satisfaction, “Thank you!” They ate in silence for a few minutes, “So does that mean we can’t christen the kitchen counter?”

 

His wife narrowed her eyes at him, but grinned, “Give me like a half hour.”

 

A half hour later Lian was bent over the kitchen counter, Bart having his way with her while her fingers scrabbled to find purchase on the slick tile in front of her. “I love you.” Bart said into her ear.

 

Lian laughed breathlessly, arching back into him, “You better.” She looked over her shoulder at him, “I love you too.”

 

When they’d both finished, Bart carried her into the bedroom and they fell asleep in one another’s arms. Nightmares didn’t wake Lian, but a cold wave of anger did. She reached over to touch Bart on the shoulder, and muttered, still half asleep, “Babe, what’s wrong?”

 

“Hmm?” He hummed sleepily.

 

“What’s got you angry?” She asked, rolling to look at his face.

 

He opened his eyes, and the only emotion she was getting off his skin was sleepy confusion, “Wasn’t angry. I was asleep. What’s wrong? Nightmare?”

 

Lian sat up in bed, feeling a knot in the pit of her stomach as her heart-rate spiked, and shook her head slowly, “We’re not alone.”

* * *

Kat was standing in front of the Daily Planet, trying desperately to suppress the flood of memories all trying to make their way to the forefront of her brain. She had other things that needed to take priority, like saving her daughter. For him to be a genius, Damian should have thought to give her his phone number too, not just Lian’s, then she’d have been able to get to the League through him. Instead, she was relying on memories she half-trusted.

 

She took a deep breath and stalked into the building, standing in front of the receptionist desk and growling, “I need to see Clark Kent.”

 

The idiot behind the desk smiled pleasantly at her. “Is Mr. Kent expecting you?”

 

“No.” She grit out, trying to decide if she had a chance of getting away with just rushing the stairs. That was unlikely. She’d already drawn attention from security, the two large men were watching her every move. Clark would be upset if she murdered or maimed his employees.

 

The pleasant smile continued to glare up at her, “Well I’m afraid you’ll have to make an appointment, Mr. Kent keeps a very well managed schedule.”

 

Kat leaned over the desk, using her physical position to intimidate the young female, “He’ll make time. Call him. Tell him Kat Harper’s here. I need to see him, now.”

 

The smile faltered, “I’m going to have to ask you to step back, and...”

 

“Harper?” A female voice said in shock, cutting the receptionist off.

 

“Mrs Kent!” The young female chirped, anxiety on her face.

 

Kat spun around, locked eyes with the woman, and hissed, “I need to see Clark, now.”

 

Lois Kent stared a few seconds, “You’re alive.”

 

“Now, Lois. I’m running out of time!” Kat yelled.

 

That snapped Lois out of her stupor, “Okay, follow me. Sure he’s heard you though.”

 

Clark was there when they stepped off the elevator. “Kat, are you okay? I was going to come see you, but Red...”

 

“I don’t care.” She snapped, cutting him off, “I need to get to the League, now.”

 

“What? Why?” He asked in confusion.

 

Kat could hardly control the mix of panic and rage building in her body, “Because Vandal Savage just sent a team after my daughter, and she’s not answering her cellphone.”

* * *

Bart bolted out of bed, vanished, and was back in a split second, “Get dressed. They just landed on the dock. We still have time to get out.”

 

Lian dressed as quickly as she could, but Bart rushed her along after he dressed himself, and grabbed her hand. She ended up clinging to his back while he ran around the property, trying and failing to find a way off the island that had seemed like such a good idea at the time. At one point, they had to fight their way out of a tight spot, and one of the black clad men had aimed past Lian to shoot Bart in the thigh. He screamed and stumbled against a tree. Lian dispatched the man who had shot him quickly, and somehow managed to get them both back to the house, hiding in a hall closet just barely big enough for her to move around in.

 

Lian fumbled at the wound on Bart’s leg, focusing on making sure he was okay rather than the fact that they were cornered sitting ducks. She’d taken a gun from one of the men, but it only had three rounds left, hardly enough to defend them from the no less than half dozen remaining men crawling over the tiny island. “Through and through. Seems like it missed your femoral. You’ll live.” The bone was shattered though, she could feel it.

 

“Doesn’t matter, Li. They’re after us. We need to move.” Bart said breathlessly, feeling his body fight to pull muscle and bone back together.

 

“They’re not after you, baby.” Lian whispered, holding her hand over the wound on his leg as she looked around for something to bind it with. “They shot you, not me, even though I was the clearer shot. You saw the tranq guns, right? They want me, alive, for some reason.”

 

He grabbed her when she tied her jacket around his thigh and started to stand, “Li, no.”

 

Lian kissed him, “Yes. They’re going to kill you if you try to get in the way, I can feel it. Stay here where you’re safe. I slowed the bleeding, you’ll be fine.”

 

He struggled to get up, muttering about how he could probably still run. Lian pushed him back down, “No. Your bone is going to take at least a half hour to heal enough for that. I’m not going to let you get yourself killed.” He kept hissing at her even as she pulled him into the closet, arranging him on a pile of clothes so his leg was as high as possible. Lian stroked his face, knowing he wasn’t going to just stay where she put him, “I’m so sorry. I love you.” Then she leaned down and kissed him, focusing on how it had felt when she’d attacked her mother. Bart gasped softly before his eyes rolled back in his head and his body went slack. She took a couple of seconds to make sure he was still breathing before she closed the closet. Something about leaving him there gave her a sense of deja vu, but it felt wrong, like something she shouldn't have felt at all.

 

She’d done a good job of keeping his blood off the ground, but she squeezed blood from her shirt onto her fingers to flick in a trail as she went along, just in case. Lian stumbled upon her attackers easily enough, and managed to take a couple of them down with her, but one lucky shot with a tranquilizer dart was all it took. Her last thoughts were focused on Bart, on how much she loved him and how she would never ever forgive herself if they went looking for him and killed him anyway.

* * *

Clark was pale when he came back into the room they’d left her in, “God, Kat. She’s gone. We were too late.” He swallowed hard, “They shot Bart, but it looks like she managed to tuck him away in a closet before they took her.”

 

“So she’s alive.” Kat said tightly, her mind running through scenarios.

 

He nodded slightly, “We think so. All the blood was Bart’s. He’ll be okay though.”

 

“I don’t care about him.” She answered honestly, “All I care about is my daughter. Send me back to Earth.”

 

“Kat, we’re getting a team together to...”

 

“Send me back to Earth.” She repeated, cutting him off and getting damn tired of people not listening to her. “You can waste time and get your little ‘team’ together, but it’s time for me to go to work. I should never have come here in the first place.”

 

To their credit, it only took ten minutes for them to be dispersed around the Light’s office building where the martians had both agreed Lian was being held. They’d fought her, but in the end, Kat had won. She had to go in alone. Red caught her hand before she went within range of the building’s security system, “Be careful, we’re right behind you.”

 

Kat narrowed her eyes at him, “This is not a situation that calls for careful. Careful won’t get her out of there in one piece. Smart will.” She flicked one of her weapons out of it’s sheath on her thigh, “Stay out of my way.”

 

She kept the blade hidden as she went into the building, feeling the difference from her earlier arrival acutely. This time it wasn’t just about her own life relying on her acting skills, it was Lian’s too. That crazy little rambling girl suddenly meant so much to her, and it was hard to swallow. What was harder to swallow, however, was letting Mina take over enough to disable the security guards without anything looking amiss. Typing on the computer for a handful of seconds, she started a protocol to shut down the League specified defense system one quadrant at a time. She could get in faster than they could though, and swiftly began her hunt for Savage and her daughter.

* * *

_"And another one bites the dust_   
_Oh why can I not conquer love?_   
_And I might have thought that we were one_   
_Wanted to fight this war without weapons_

_And I wanted it, I wanted it bad_   
_But there were so many red flags_   
_Now another one bites the dust_   
_Yeah, let's be clear, I'll trust no one_

_You did not break me_   
_I'm still fighting for peace_

_Well, I've got thick skin and an elastic heart,_   
_But your blade - it might be too sharp_   
_I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard,_   
_Yeah, I may snap and I move fast_   
_But you won't see me fall apart_   
_'Cause I've got an elastic heart."_

**_Elastic Heart  
By: Sia_ **


	13. Bring Me To Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Made it to Chapter 13! There's 3-4 chapters left after this one, including an epilogue. When I first started Red Mirror, I envisioned it as a trilogy, but things have changed so much since then that this really feels like a much less contrived place to end things that will leave you, the readers, much more satisfied. We've got a lot of plot to wrap up and a couple chapters to get through before the end though, I just wanted to thank you all for joining me on this ride!
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter! It's a doozy! ;)

**-Two Hours before Kat's arrival-The Light Headquarters-**

Lian came to with a pounding headache.

An instant later she realized she was bound to a cold metal table, her ankles and wrists strapped down with individual cuffs, and a leather band rested against her sternum and across her shoulders, effectively immobilizing her. Instinct left her jerking in the binds, trying desperately to slip her hands out, but she couldn't dislocate her thumbs right with the cuffs being leather instead of metal so all the training her grandmother had given her was useless.

"Don't struggle, Mrs Allen. The paralytic is just only wearing off." A deep gravelly voice whispered in her ear.

Her eyes flicked open and a gasp escaped her at the sight of the hideous man above her. Physically most wouldn't think him ugly, but she could feel his very soul, and it was darker than any she'd ever felt before. She muttered out the first thing that came to mind, "Who are you?"

She knew who he was though, from League files, even before he said with a smile, "Vandal Savage."

"Let me go." Lian gritted out, pushing a wave of emotions at him that she hoped resembled compliance.

He shook his head, "No, little Kit, I'm not going to let you go. And you'll only tire yourself trying to emotionally manipulate me. You don't have the finesse to make anyone do anything they don't want to do. Wether you spread your legs for that obnoxious speedster or not, you're just a little girl."

"Fuck you." She hissed. "He's my husband."

"Relax, Kit. You're upsetting my physician with your heart rate." He told her, patting her shoulder, "Besides, my men said they left your husband on the island alive. You're lucky I told them to get you here as soon as possible. He's lucky you had sense enough to incapacitate his foolish ass and stash him somewhere. You kept him from throwing his life away. I appreciate that in a woman."

Lian shrugged away from his touch, and glared up at him, "I thought I was a little girl."

"Compared to me, Kit, you haven't even been born." He said indulgently. "Now hold still."

A woman appeared in her peripheral vision with a phlebotomy kit. "No chance in hell." Lian spat at the woman, jerking her arms to her sides as tightly as she could given the restraints holding her onto the metal table she was laying on.

"Please don't move. I've already taken two vials, I just need another pair." The woman said lifelessly.

"Why do you need more blood, Dr. Tate?" Vandal asked curiously.

"Just further blood work and a sample to compare after the test results." She answered blandly, gesturing for a lab assistant to hold Lian's arm still.

Savage hummed, "I'm so glad I brought you onto this project. You're very capable, Dr. Tate."

"Capable of testing someone without their consent you mean." Lian said, glaring at the woman as she slid a needle into Lian's arm.

The supposed Dr. Tate looked at Savage, "Might I suggest gagging the subject? It's distracting my associates."

"IT? Did you just call me an 'it'? I'm a real person who's been kidnapped and is being held against..." Lian was cut off by a wad of fabric being shoved in her mouth so firmly that she almost choked on it. She settled for glaring at them all with her sharp blue eyes.

The scientist barely blinked at Savage's rough treatment, and completely ignored Lian's glare, glancing down at a clipboard in her hands, "Human Chorionic Gonadotropin levels are less than five, by the way, so Phase 2 will have to proceed as scheduled if Phase 1 goes as planned. We've already flushed the remaining drugs from the body, regular ovulation should resume shortly."

Lian felt sick. Whatever he wanted her for, it involved reproduction. She looked helplessly at the people in the room, trying to get just one of them to feel enough of her fear and desperation that they would let her go. She couldn't just lay down and let them use her like a lab rat. Gagged or not, she was going to fight with everything she had left.

\- -Two Hours Later- -

Kat felt cold moving among the hallways that had once been a safe feeling place. Fortunately, it was late, and none of the scientists wandering the halls appeared to have any idea the righteous fury that was about to rain down on them. She wasn't going to be the dealer of that, however. She was after Savage and her daughter. If he'd harmed Lian, he would die.

A woman she recognized as one of the legitimate business shareholders met her in the hall, "Mina, Mr Savage just sent us out to find you. He has something he'd like to discuss with you."

"Take me to him, then." She said gruffly, pretending to be bored.

The woman smiled, oblivious to how close she was to a killer on the hunt for blood. The Light liked their underlings like that though, ignorant and good looking. No ugly henchmen for the Light. Perhaps she should have tried slicing her own pretty face to ribbons instead of trying to kill herself. The other woman was unaware of her dark inner monologue, that smile still on her face as she said, "Of course, follow me."

The woman attempted smalltalk, but Kat wasn't listening, at least until she stopped in front of a private elevator, "He's in the lab downstairs. I'll be interested to know what's inside. He's been very secretive."

"I'll report back to you." Kat said in Mina's voice.

"Thank you." The woman smiled, not noticing the red sticker Kat smoothed on to the wall behind her, activating a homing beacon that would let those outside know where she'd gone.

The elevator ride was quick, but she could tell that the lab was built underground. Never a good sign. Underground facilities were just as good for secrecy as they were for burying secrets if things went wrong. A few well placed explosives and it would be like it had never existed at all. The room she entered was large and white, set up like a surgery theater with a metal table in the center and equipment lining the walls.

Lian was laying on the table, gagged, alert and exuding a sickening mix of anger and fear. She seemed unharmed though, just getting angrier when a man in a lab coat rearranged her shirt to place a heart monitor on her chest. Again, not a good sign.

"I see you acquired your target successfully. Was she as difficult to get as you'd feared?" She asked, keeping her tone carefully even as she drug her eyes to where Savage was leaning against one of the white walls.

He shrugged one large muscled shoulder, "There's only so much you can expect from hired help. They didn't kill her husband like I'd asked, but I'm appreciative that they brought her to me undamaged."

She tipped her head up haughtily, "I'd have killed him for you, if you'd sent me there instead of giving me a night off."

Lian whined through the gag, looking agonized and positively crushed. Kat was distracted from Savage for a split second, wishing she could comfort her daughter. But a whole room and armed guards stood between them.

Vandal chuckled darkly, drawing her attention away from Lian, "Ah, why don't we stop with pretenses, Katherine."

She froze for an instant, ignoring the hope that flared to life in Lian's blue eyes in favor of saying firmly, "My name is Mina."

Another chuckle that chilled her to the bone, "We both know it's not, Mrs Harper. Mina Crane would not be so interested in my little captive."

"My curiosity is bred from boredom. That, and I stabbed her less than a month ago." She said evenly, trying so hard to skate under the radar she knew she'd already tripped.

"Yes, you did. You didn't kill her though. I was hoping you would. That gives me a chance to let you in on a little secret though." Savage said, grinning maniacally and ripped the gag from between Lian's teeth. "This little one could be just like her mother."

"What?" Kat and Lian said together.

"Cat's have nine lives. Lian's used one already, her first test. The odds of a child surviving birth four months premature are extraordinary. Most would say impossible, especially when her mother was injected with massive amounts of pitocin and saline. Yet she was born whole and healthy a few hours later. A miracle. The hospital would have been swarmed with news had our people not been staffing the hospital that night." Vandal explained further, "You see her father is the genetic copy of a man descended from my very own blood line, Roy Harper, in perfect health his whole life. You on the other hand had a serious heart condition that would have killed you before you so much as reached fifteen pounds in weight."

"Don't touch me." Lian growled, biting at his hand when he tried to trail it down her cheek.

He simply smiled, continuing his deranged dissertation, "Using my own mutated DNA, I developed a serum to cheat death. It's effective, but each time, it is harder for the decedent to come back, hence your unfortunate coffin incident. I sent Red Claw after you all those years ago with a dart laced with a belladonna derived toxin, yet you emerged from the water alive. A very successful test. The next step was to let you and the clone reconnect after that first chance encounter with the real Roy. That worked out better than planned, and then came Lian, the fruit of all those awful years of labor."

"What do you want with her?" Kat finally asked, looking for a way, any way, to free her daughter without him noticing and interfering, but kept coming up empty.

"I live off the flesh of my descendants. Your Lian is one of those descendants of mine, through her father. Through you, she's near immortal. The perfect creation to help keep me alive. Eight lives left, but I intend for her to pass her genetics along to her children so I can use them as well. Longer life spans, multiple uses, easily located, perfect." Vandal whispered the last part, stroking a hand through Lian's red curls. "Don't worry, Kit. I'll show you the world before your last life is up. You'll have almost ten years of living as any girl your age could dream."

"Except for the part where you plan to kill and eat me every few years, and force me to have kids you'll do the same thing to." Lian hissed, jerking in her bindings again.

"True." He admitted, nonplussed. Horror spread through Kat. Yes she'd been manipulated since the day she was born, but having Lian had been her choice. She remembered that much. What Savage had just confessed to was almost worse than anything they'd done to her. They'd stolen her mind and most of her body, but they'd never gone that far.

"Why not just keep cloning us? Why go through all the effort of medically engineering me?" Lian asked, sagging against the table and breaking her mother's trial of spiraling thoughts.

"After a few clonings the tissue becomes unusable for my particular needs. Degradation of the original genetic code and all. Useless." He said blithely, like he wasn't talking about lives. Even artificially created lives. And both women knew that that didn't really matter. They both loved Red, and he was one of those clones. Savage continued, "That's what led to Lian, organic reproduction merged with genetic engineering. Revolutionary. Of course, we have one last test, to ensure our theories are correct and it wasn't just mother healing child."

"What?" Kat asked, confused, at least until she saw the scalpel in his hand, "No!"

Savage drug the blade across the pale skin of Lian's throat, pressing down, smiling when she screamed shrilly once and blood stained her skin, first slowly, and then in pulsing bursts. Lian's body went lax on the table.

"Lian!" Kat screamed, closing the distance between them and knocking Vandal aside.

Lian gurgled weakly, and her blue eyes could hardly follow Kat's movements as the older woman pressed her hands on either side of Lian's neck to try and stop the torrent of blood from leaving her daughter. Lian whispered out something that might have been 'mom', but he'd damaged her vocal chords too badly, she mostly just swallowed blood. Lian's eyes were visibly losing more and more focus with every pump of her dying heart.

Kat felt tears on her face, and nodded, "I'm right here. I'm so sorry." Lian blinked once before falling deathly still, a tiny smile on her face, and expelled one last breath, blood staining her lips, a terrible and shrill sound filing the air. A second later, and the emotional presence in Kat's head flickered and went out, like it had never been there at all. She hadn't noticed it until it was gone. Lian had been with her the whole time. "No!" Kat howled, and sobbed as she took one last look at her dead daughter before seeking immediate and swift justice. "You just killed my daughter."

Vandal shrugged, "Technically she's my granddaughter, a couple dozen generations removed, of course. In the name of science, sometimes sacrifices must be made."

"You're heartless." She said softly in realization as a plan formed in her head. She took a deep breath, stilling her trembling bloody hands as she drifted to lock the only door, "Let's make the inside match the outside."

The two guards were easy to dispatch, and it took just a few seconds to disable their weapons. The scientists screamed, rushing the door that Kat had already rendered useless from the inside.

It might not be the justice that the League approved of, but for once being Mina helped her be more than the Kat she had been before. The thirst for blood mingled with her rage, and she lost herself in the carnage. She didn't care. Nothing mattered but destroying every living creature in the locked down lab. Her daughter was dead, and those responsible would pay with their lives, Vandal Savage most of all.

She'd then taken to removing all the alleged scientists who had cavorted with him from the equation. They were easy enough, none warriors, and all helpless as newborn kittens under the strength of her wrath. Savage seemed genuinely surprised when she came for him, and laughed.

He had actually laughed when she came for him, so sure she would never be able to do it. But she was younger, smaller, faster than the man who had lived so long and so terribly. Most of all, she had nothing left to lose. Her mind was fractured and her daughter dead. Red's love was a far flung hope that had disintegrated when their daughter had died. She fought Vandal Savage with every once of strength she had, with no thought to her own safety. His pride led to his downfall, and she made sure he would never live again.

His heart fell from her hand as the rage fled as quickly as it had come.

Covered in blood, Kat staggered back to Lian, releasing her from the leather binds that had held her down, ripped off the electrodes that were still making the heart monitor ring that god-awful high pitched squealing that was making her head spin, and lifted Lian's body off the cold metal table.

Savage had jammed a scalpel into the muscles of her good thigh before she'd killed him. The injury wasn't life threatening, but she'd been beaten all over and the combination of injuries was almost more than she could handle. Kat couldn't support her weight and Lian's on it for any longer than it took to stagger two yards away.

She laid Lian out gently on the floor, "Just a minute, baby. Momma'll be right back."

Kat stumbled from the linen cabinet to a sink, and returned to Lian's side, trying in vain to wipe the blood off Lian's face. There was too much of it though, and Kat couldn't stay strong anymore. She pulled Lian close, and kissed her cheek. "I'm so sorry."

Cradling her daughter's corpse in her arms, and trying desperately to hold herself together, Kat began to count.

* * *

_How can you see into my eyes like open doors?  
_ _Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb  
_ _Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold  
_ _Until you find it there and lead it back home_

_(Wake me up)_   
_Wake me up inside_   
_(I can't wake up)_   
_Wake me up inside_   
_(Save me)_   
_Call my name and save me from the dark_   
_(Wake me up)_   
_Bid my blood to run_   
_(I can't wake up)_   
_Before I come undone_   
_(Save me)_   
_Save me from the nothing I've become_

_Now that I know what I'm without_   
_You can't just leave me_   
_Breathe into me and make me real_   
_Bring me to life_

**Bring Me To Life  
By: Evanescence**


	14. Possibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter picks up where the last one left off!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's been so long! I didn't mean for a whole month to go by without an update! On the plus side, the next chapter is mostly written, and the final chapter is just awaiting revision. It's a little bittersweet finishing this thing up, so you're reviews are everything to me!
> 
> Hang in there!

They all stood still when they entered the room. There was blood everywhere, bodies everywhere, and Kat and Lian were in the center of the gory mess.

Lian was on her back in Kat's arms, and the older woman was rocking back and forth, wracked by full body sobs. Bart fell to his knees with a gut wrenching whine. Lian was pale, and not moving. Dead. Again. He'd failed her again. He'd hoped that the emotional void he'd felt hadn't meant what he'd known it had meant. He'd felt it before, felt when Lian was gone. And she was dead again. He recognized that he was still whining, even as he heard the others behind him react to the room in front of them. It had only been seconds since they'd opened the door.

When they finally fell silent, they could hear Kat whispering, "Three hundred eighteen, three hundred nineteen..."

Red forced himself forward, sinking to the floor next to Kat and their daughter. He put a shaking hand on Kat's arm, "Kat?"

She shook hear head, and hissed at him, continuing her count. He said her name again, and she looked up at him, eyes feral, barring her teeth at him when she growled, "Wait."

Red looked at his daughter, bloody and limp, and nodded, wrapping an arm over Kat's shoulder. He'd given up on her once before, he wasn't going to give up on their daughter.

Kat had just whispered four hundred when Lian jerked in her arms, a loud rattling gasp ripping from her still cut throat. Bart joined them a split second later, his face mottled and tear stained.

"Li?" He whispered, and they all stared into her wide blue eyes.

Lian blinked slowly, and opened her mouth to speak. Kat shook her head, brushing Lian's blood slicked red hair out of her face, and keeping a hand firmly over the cut on her throat that was bleeding again now that her heart had restarted, although it had healed a great deal. "No, baby, don't talk. Just breathe."

Red looked at Kat in awe, "How did you know?"

Her eyes were dark, "The monster used us. Manipulated us." She was shaking, and he heard her teeth click together in anger, "He was going to eat her. Over and over until she stopped coming back." Her gaze moved from Lian's face to a large still form to the side of the room, "He'll never hurt her again."

None of them would. All across the room dead bodies littered the floor and overturned surfaces. Kat had taken no prisoners, and shown no mercy. Vandal Savage had been gutted, and his heart was resting on the blood splattered white tiles at Lian's feet like a macabre feline offering. That was when Red realized that Kat was drenched in blood that wasn't her own, and was completely unarmed. She had bits of flesh jammed under her fingernails though, and a pair of forceps lay ominously next to Savage's body.

Red didn't care, not one bit. She'd done it for their daughter, and for the first time in nearly twenty years, he was finally able to see his wife hold their daughter again. The others moved around the room, surveying the certainly dead bodies.

It was a few more minutes before Kat let Lian sit up, and she rubbed her daughter's back soothingly as she vomited up blood. "Let it out. You'll get sicker if you don't."

Red hated that Kat knew that, that she'd been through so much and he'd been unable to help her. She was being so tender with Lian though, ignoring everyone else completely in favor of coddling her weak daughter.

"Mom?" Lian croaked in confusion, the word garbled but unmistakable.

For the first time since her return from the dead, Kat smiled without shadows in her eyes, "I'm still here, baby. You're gonna be okay, I promise. Please try not to talk." Lian made a small whimper of a noise, and Kat pulled her even closer, tucking Lian's head under her chin.

Then she started humming.

Out of the corner of his eye, Red saw Damian stagger, stumbling to sit in a chair someone had righted. He didn't blame the younger man one bit.

Red recognized the tune she was humming. He'd heard it a thousand times when they'd first lived together in that little house. Kat had put Damian to sleep with it nearly every night, and she'd done the same when baby Lian had been fussy. The tune was unmistakable, even as broken as it was by Kat's stress and the fact that it had been nearly two decades since she'd hummed a song at all.

"I remember." Kat whispered, stroking Lian's hair. She cleared her throat, "I remember the day you were born. I didn't know it then, but I know now. You were dead, for five minutes. I was up in that tree alone, and I couldn't feel you moving. You were always moving then. I was terrified. I counted the seconds till you kicked, trying to keep myself calm, and I never thought about it again." She pinched her eyes closed, "I can't lose you, Lian, not when we've just found each other. I can't say I'll be any good, but I'm gonna try...to be your mother. Hopefully your dad will let me know when I screw up."

They locked gazes over Lian's head, and Red wiped a smear of blood off Kat's cheek, "I think you're doing a good job so far."

"Mmhmm." Lian hummed in agreement, nodding off.

The males looked panicked, but Kat just shook her head, "Coming back from the dead is hard work, particularly exsanguination. She'll be weak for a couple of days. She really shouldn't talk either, not until the flesh has healed fully. Major blood vessels heal before the heart starts beating, but everything else takes longer. He cut into her throat so deeply, the cartilage of her trachea will be fragile for a while. She could re-injure herself if she pushes too hard."

"How do you...?" Bart trailed off, grimacing. "Sorry."

Kat shrugged, "Don't apologize. When they want you to be a killer, they teach you anatomy, and they did the same thing to me a couple of times. First time, I screamed so much they had to trake me so I wouldn't suffocate. Pissed Crane off big time."

Red wished the man were still alive so he could kill him himself, but was interrupted when someone suggested they leave and detonate the explosives already in place by the Light to bury the underground lab. Kat stuck to Lian like glue as they went from the bloody pit in the ground to the Watchtower, pipping up every couple of minutes while the medics bandaged her daughter up. Then Red noticed the scalpel still in her leg.

"Why the hell didn't you say anything?" Red hissed.

She shrugged again, so blasé it made his teeth click together, "It doesn't hurt. Probably significant nerve damage. They match now. My other thigh is a jumbled mess too."

"I remember." He blurted, and they locked eyes over their daughter's sleeping form.

Kat avoided Red after that, for the rest of the day, until long after most people had either gone home or gone to sleep. He went to debrief and when he returned to Lian's room, his daughter was asleep, her husband holding her hand and fast asleep in the chair beside her. He went looking for Kat.

It wasn't hard to find her, with everyone else mostly cleared out and her highly limited security clearance. She was in one of the exterior hallways, teetering on her new crutches and staring hard down at the earth. She didn't look up as he approached.

"What're you up to?" Red said gently, touching the side of her face.

"Lian's asleep. Now that I know she gets my nightmares, I didn't want to fall asleep at the same time as her while she's still so weak." Kat said honestly, shying away from his touch and refusing to look at him.

Red didn't catch her reluctance, "Now that we know what's going on, I'm sure someone around here can devise a modified inhibitor collar for her to wear while she's sleeping." It was a ludicrous thought, neither one of them would ever force one of those things on Lian.

"I've made my choice, Red." Kat said softly, feeling an odd sense of guilt for what she was about to tell the man, what she'd been struggling with since their daughter had taken her second first breath.

Confusion washed across his handsome features, and he finally settled for shrugging, a frown sitting upon his lips, "Okay. What about?"

"I can't be your wife." She said evenly, hoping that being cold would help him accept her decision.

It didn't.

"Excuse me? We haven't even...for Christ's sake, Kat, I just got you back!" His hands waved in front of him, but he never made a move to touch her. They were both afraid of what would happen if they did make physical contact again. It likely wouldn't be pretty, either violent or wholly inappropriate for a public venue. Red tugged at his hair, and pinched his eyes closed, "Can't we at least see how things work without our daughter being in mortal danger?"

"I can't be your wife anymore, Red." She elaborated slightly, resisting the urge to put her hands on his chest to comfort him. She couldn't do that anymore.

"The hell you can't." He hissed, eyes dark, shoulders squared, "Til death do us part, Kat. I'm in this for the rest of my life."

Kat nodded, staring at the floor in front of his feet and folding her arms in to comfort herself, "I know, but you're forgetting that I've already died. Several times in fact. I'm not the same woman you married. I'm a killer, a violent killer, and I feel no remorse about any of it. I don't deserve you. And I can't..."

He took a half step closer, "Can't what?"

His voice made her resolve weaken ever so slightly, so she forced her eyes away from him to compensate, "I can't focus on being good enough to be your wife and focus on being a good mother to Lian. I don't have the emotional bandwidth to do that anymore, and it's not fair to you."

Silence stretched between them for longer than she was comfortable for, but he finally spoke, and put his large hands on her shoulders, "I understand, Kat." He kissed her temple, and left her standing in the hallway by herself.

His sudden departure had her reeling, and she stood there for a long time, staring out the window at the Earth spinning ceaselessly, blissfully unaware of how her world was cracking beneath her feet and nothing she did made it right because it hadn't ever been right. She didn't understand Red, couldn't understand him. He and the others claimed to be paragons of Good, but not a one of them had agreed earlier in the day when she'd offered to serve time for her numerous crimes and multiple murders. And he still loved her. She remembered loving him, but those memories were through the lens of a young woman with a heart of gold. The gold had weathered away a long time ago, and all that was left was a diamond, valuable and pretty, but ultimately cold.

Bart startled her out of her thoughts, appearing by her side, "Hey, Mama Kat. Li wants to see you. I promised her you hadn't left."

"I wouldn't leave." She whispered, and quirked a tiny smile at the crutches she was teetering upon, "Can't imagine I'd get very far anyway."

He laughed, and shrugged, "You're clever, I think you could figure out some other way to get around."

Kat stared at him for a heartbeat before shaking her head, "How did we end up here?"

Bart leaned forward to prop his elbows on the metal bar in front of them, looking down at the Earth before looking back over his shoulder at her, "Because she loves us. Lian has the greatest empathetic capacity anyone has ever seen, and I don't doubt that every person she meets is left with a part of her in their mind. But us, she loves. She's the wrong empath for the powers she's been given. She doesn't want to feel everyone, just the people she cares about, and you and I have a tendency to move around more than she'd like. Her powers have a life of their own, a temperament so to speak that's very childlike, petulant almost. We can't stay away. I couldn't through time, and you couldn't through lost memories and distance from Self."

"You make it sound as though we're her thralls." Kat commented.

"We are." He said, voice flat, "Me, you, her father. The three of us are wrapped up so tightly in her empathy we can never truly be ourselves again. Have to say I'm worse off than you two, but that's what happens when romantic love overlaps the platonic empathy bond. They're both ten times stronger."

"Is that so bad?" She asked, thinking about how her feelings for Lian were all that she had to hold on to at the moment.

Bart beamed at her, "No, it's not. It's the most wonderful thing in the world. Lian is my world." His expression changed to one she recognized distantly, one he had used as a young man when he let the jovial personality fail and spoke truthfully, "Red feels the same way about you. He's a good man, a good father, and he'll wait for you as long as you need him to."

Kat sighed, "I thought I heard you around here."

He smirked, "I didn't want to intrude."

"Of course not." She said wryly, adjusting her grip on the crutches to take a little weight off her old-bad leg. "I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for that, Bart. A physical relationship I can handle, but that romance you were talking about... I'm really not sure I'm capable of that anymore."

"You love Lian, right?"

"Yes." She answered instantly.

Bart smiled at her, "You'll get there, Kat. Don't think you're not capable, because you are. Romantic love is simply a physical relationship stemming from a platonic relationship. Have 'em separate for a while, they'll come together on their own."

Kat was silent for a few minutes, taking in his words. "Should it bother me that my son-in-law is giving me relationship advice?"

Bart chuckled, "Nah, but we should get back to Li before she gets herself into trouble."

Another unbidden smile came to her face, "She doesn't like hospitals anymore than I do, does she?"

"Like mother like daughter!" Bart agreed crisply, scooping her off her feet before she took her next breath. He put her crutches in her arms, "Hang tight, Mama Kat, it'll be faster this way!"

They both started when Lian wasn't alone. Selina stood over her granddaughter, running a comb through damp red curls. "She would always be out like a light when I started brushing her hair." Selina said without looking up at them. She gestured for them to stay in the doorway, and ran the comb one more time through Lian's hair before exiting the room. "Had to use water from a cup and a towel under her hair, but I think I got most of the blood out."

"I didn't think they were bringing you up here until tomorrow." Bart said, confused by her appearance.

Selina smiled, "Nothing has ever stopped me from being where I want to be. They couldn't keep me away if they tried. Bruce thinks I'm taking a bath." She took in her daughter's appearance and held out her arms, "Oh, come here, baby."

Kat practically threw herself from her crutches and into her mother's arms. They both fell to the floor, and Selina cooed to her daughter, resting her back against the wall. "I almost lost her!" Kat wailed, muffling her words in her mother's shoulder.

Bart slipped back into the room to keep Kat's panic from waking Lian from the sleep she so obviously needed. Selina ignored her aged protesting muscles and stayed on the floor until Kat calmed down. She knew how Kat felt, only she'd actually buried her daughter first. "She's going to be just fine, Katherine. You need to remember that. You're hurt, she's hurt, and you need to let me take care of both my girls. I know you're strong now, Katherine, but you need to let me help you. Will you do that? Let me bring you home."

Kat clung to her mother. It was an odd sensation, and only odd in how wonderful it felt. She had no memories of ever being so comforted by her mother's presence, and nodded, "I will."

Selina smiled, "Good girl. Your father will be thrilled to have you home. He'll pretend he's not, but I know he gets just as lonely as I am when all the kids are away. He'd be up here himself if Terry didn't insist he stay. Your little brother's excited to meet you."

Kat looked up at her mother with her father's blue eyes, "Wait a minute, who the fuck is Terry?"

Selina's giggles could be heard throughout the hallway.

* * *

_"Know that when you leave,_   
_Know that when you leave,_   
_by blood and by me, you walk like a thief,_   
_by blood and by me, I fall when you leave._

_So tell me when you hear my heart stop._   
_You're the only one who knows._   
_Tell me when you hear my silence,_   
_There's a possibility I wouldn't know._

_So tell me when my sorrows over_   
_You're the reason why I'm closed_   
_Tell me when you hear me falling._   
_There's a possibility it wouldn't show."_

**Possibility  
By: Lykke Li**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is called 'Flaws' inspired by the Bastille song, and there will be answers galore there! Also, Kat reuniting with her daddy! And meeting her new brother, with some other surprises too!
> 
> Thanks for reading guys!  
> -Jenn


	15. Flaws

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no excuse for the half a year that has gone by, except for me being unwilling to let this story go and getting a massive case of writers block. Anyway, here's the penultimate chapter of Red Stone! Enjoy!

Flaws:

Kat dropped her bag on the porch of Wayne Manor, staring up at the huge house. She noticed a bullet hole someone had tried to patch, eliciting a vague memory of being shot on the aforementioned porch. She couldn't recall the context yet, she was sure she'd have to ask her father about it. Red wasn't really talking to her.

Unease settled into her. She was about to see her father again for the first time in years where she actually remembered him. Her father who believed that killing was unnecessary. What must he think of her?

"Katherine." He said from inside the large manor doors, and she startled at his appearance. The strong stern man from her memories was gone, instead he had been replaced by a weathered old man. Time had not been as kind to him as it had been to her mother. He looked weak, but the relief she saw on his face made the weariness fade away as she watched, making him look at least ten years younger.

"Hi, Dad." She said meekly, hesitating to enter the grand house she no longer felt a part of. He didn't hesitate, reaching through the doorframe and yanking her into his arms, letting his cane fall to the floor. The one crutch she was still using banged against one of the stone statues before joining his cane on the ground. Kat couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up, as they clung to one another, "Look at us, a pair of cripples!"

Bruce chuckled softly, eyes clenched shut. "Yes, yes we are." He squeezed her once, tightly, before relinquishing his grip on her, but they both had to use the other to remain standing.

Kat was trying to figure out how to keep them both from tumbling down onto the marble entrance when Bart appeared behind them, "Someone need some stability support?"

"Shut up you little shit." Kat hissed, increasingly tired of her son-in-law patronizing her.

Bruce snorted, "Would have beat him half to death years ago if Lian wasn't so damned attached."

Bart scowled at them both, saying, "You two are terrible," before zipping back into the house.

Lian emerged a couple seconds later, a couple of butterfly bandages the only sign that she'd been dead just days before. "Gramps, hang on." She put his cane in his hand and slipped between them to embrace her mother, "Hey, Mom."

Kat smiled, "Hi, Baby. How are you feeling?"

Lian shrugged, "Better, much better now that you're finally home."

"Home?" Kat echoed, "I thought you and the shit had your own house."

"We do, but we're here all the time." She explained simply, handing Kat's crutch back to her and picking up the abandoned suitcase.

They settled into the living room, Lian leaning into Kat on the sofa. The look on Bruce's face when Selina practically danced into the room told Kat more than she needed to know. Bruce loved Selina, but the woman annoyed him as well. "Darling!" Selina yelled, grabbing Kat's hands and pulling her up despite the fact that Kat tumbled into her. "You look so beautiful!"

Kat tried to steady herself, and it was only Lian's steadying hand that kept her from knocking Selina over, "Easy Grams, Mom isn't a hundred percent yet!"

Selina was jittery with excitement, "Oh, but she's well enough to meet Terry, and Damian will be here soon! All my kids in one place finally!"

Kat tried shrugging her mother off, "Pretty sure you just had two, and Damian and I were together yesterday."

Selina sighed, "Terry, darling."

"Oh, right, Terry." Kat grumbled, letting Lian help her back onto the sofa.

The boy in question had arrived and was standing awkwardly in the doorway, "Um, hi?"

"Wow." Was all Kat could say, looking at the boy.

Selina chuckled, "I know, he looks so much like your father it's creepy sometimes."

Kat shook her head, "No, Mom, he looks just like Damian did at that age."

They all jumped when a voice from the window said, "Nah, I was better looking."

Kat smiled widely at her brother, standing with her better leg and holding her arms out to him, "Dai!"

Damian smiled back, loping across the room like a jungle cat to hug his beloved sister, "Hey, Kat, you're looking good."

"You are too." Kat replied, holding him tighter.

Selina giggled gleefully, "I've just got to go get a camera. All my kids together!"

Lian sighed, watching her grandmother leave, "She's going to drive all of us crazy with pictures tonight."

Kat and Lian sat back down on the sofa, Damian in a chair facing them, Terry stood by the door looking like he wanted to bolt. Kat stared at her brother, memories flooding back to her. Her face scrunched up suddenly, "Hang on. You died, Dai. That explosion when Lian was an infant, you died in the hospital. You came back, but…Savage never mentioned doing anything to your DNA like he did mine. All they did was use Mom's DNA to fix the others. Did anyone ever look into that?"

Damian shrugged, "Not really. I think Dick tested my DNA after, and there weren't any strange markers or anything, not like you and Li." He got quiet for a minute, "I haven't thought about that in years, actually."

"I think I have something to do with it." Selina said, entering the room gracefully, sitting between her daughter and granddaughter so she could see her son face to face, the camera in her hands forgotten. Terry slipped out the door, feeling like an intruder in his own home for some inexplicable reason.

"Grams?" Lian said, looking worried when the woman took one of her hands in hers, her mother's in the other, her ever shifting green-brown eyes locked on her son.

"Savage used hidden coding in my DNA to augment you girls, but I'm responsible entirely for Damian.

"I serve the Goddess Bast, and from the time I was born, I had nine lives to live in her service as Selina Kyle. I've been other women through time, but those memories are foggy, distant." She laughed softly, "Think of it like the television show you kids are so fond of, Doctor Who. Technically the same person, but different each time. Unlike it, however, I have nine lives to each entity before the mantle is passed on."

"What does that have to do with us and Damian?" Kat demanded, interrupting Selina's sauntering explanation, her short Mina-temper showing through.

Selina sighed patiently, "Somewhere along the way, in my youth, I must have drawn Savage's attention and he collected enough DNA to do with what he needed. Wouldn't have been terribly difficult, living on the streets was hard, by the time I was fifteen, I'd gone through three lives." She sighed again before shrugging gracefully, "Anyway, I can only assume he felt that my child was the best test subject to test his creation on, and it worked, splendidly. He ensured that Red was a carrier for the same genetic mark, and Lian was created."

"We basically knew that, Mom. What did you mean about me?" Damian asked earnestly.

Selina took her hand from Lian's and cupped Damian's cheek with it, smiling at him and staring into his eyes that were so much like hers. "My baby boy." She whispered, looking more than a little crazy before pulling herself back together and sliding back behind her refined facade, "You remember, before Kat left us, when you saved Lian when the Cave exploded?" He nodded, of course he did. He still had to deal with the burn scars every day before he did anything else to keep them from tightening and crippling him. "I could feel you dying. I was being tortured and raped by Red Claw, but all I could focus on was your pain, how your life was slipping away further and further every second. I prayed to Bast then, and for the first and only time in my life, she answered. I begged for her to help you, to save my baby boy who I was too far away from and too weak to save." Selina paused to catch her breath, blinking back a hint of tears, "My Goddess decided to test me, to make me prove once and for all that I was worthy of being in her service. I could save you, but it would mean giving my last life and giving it to you. In the time Bast had been with me, you had died, and I didn't hesitate to give my ninth life for you because you already were my life. You Damian, and you two girls. At that time, you and Bruce were all I had in the world that mattered."

They all three stared at her, and Damian sunk from his chair to his knees at her feet, "You gave up your last life to save me?"

Selina nodded, "It wouldn't have meant anything if my little boy had died before I was able to repair the damage the Light forced me to do to our relationship."

"But you were almost dead when Kat and the others found you!" Damian exclaimed, "You could have died there and that would have been it! For what? Me?"

Selina gasped, and pulled him close, "Oh, my baby boy, you are everything. You'll understand someday, when you have children of your own. Katherine understands, don't you?" Kat nodded, glancing at Lian, who looked unsettled. Selina continued, "There is nothing that I wouldn't do for my children. It's true, following the Light's orders to keep you two safe and then letting you both go sent me into a tailspin, but I did what I did because I thought it was the best for you. Giving my last life up was easy, especially because I owed you so much." Releasing Damian, she turned her gaze to Kat, "I begged Bast to come take the life I'm living now and give it to you when you died, but she didn't come to me. I thought that was my punishment. I could save my son, but I was helpless to save my daughter."

Selina looked between the three, tears in her eyes again as she pulled a tiny red stone from where it dangled between her breasts on a gold chain, "One day, you may meet a young girl or woman who has this stone with her, and you always need to know that she will help you. She won't remember your names, but, deep down, she will never forget that you are her family and that she would give up all of her lives to protect yours." She cracked a tiny smile, "Don't be surprised to see her stealing things though. Bast has expensive tastes and people like to steal her belongings and label them historical artifacts."

Damian shot to his feet. "But you'll be dead. Gone.", he said, voice hollow.

She nodded, finishing for him, "When I die again, it will be the final time Selina Kyle will die. The stone will vanish, and a new Catwoman will be born, drawn to the stone that will deposit centuries of pertinent memories and skills upon her." Damian still looked horrified so she stood, brushing some of his long hair from his face, "Oh, baby, I've been extraordinarily blessed. I'm the first Catwoman to find her soulmate, the first to be blessed with children, not to mention grandchildren. The only reason I'm still alive today is because of your father." Her eyes narrowed, "Don't any of you tell him that, it'll go straight to his ego. He's pigheaded enough."

Lian chuckled, and Selina turned her attentions to her only grandchild, "My little Lian, you are the reason I'm so looking forward to growing old beside Bruce even though his temper isn't getting better with age. I can't wait to see what you do with your life. You have every opportunity to change the world."

"Thanks, Grams." Lian said softly.

Kat stood awkwardly, looking sternly at her mother, "Stop talking like you're dying next week. You're not that old and none of us will ever let anything happen to you. You're gonna die of old age a decade or so after Dad and be bitching about him not waiting on you to be ready to pass into the great beyond or whatever shit is on the other side of this wall we keep bouncing off of."

Selina grimaced at her daughter's verbiage, but shrugged permissively, "I can only hope for that. Bruce and I are too confrontational to ever have an ending like that Notebook movie."

Lian looked stricken, "Ugh, I hate that movie. Seriously, it's Garfield's favorite, but it really upsets Starfire, and every time they watch it, I end up crying the whole time. Now it's gonna be worse because I'll be thinking of you and Gramps."

Selina shook her head, smiling at her granddaughter, "Come on, my darlings, let's go eat dinner. Bruce has gotten so set in his ways he'll throw a tantrum if dinner isn't served before six. He only makes exception for global crisis, you know, not his wife dawdling in the sitting room with his progeny."

At dinner Kat relayed their conversation with the rest of the family with clinical precision, and their Saturday evening dinners became a tradition. Even Dick pulled his head out of his own ass enough times to join them some weeks. Even more rarely, Red would show up. He and Kat mostly ignored each other, but they both wanted to be around for their daughter. The sense of family was nice…until it wasn't.

Dick and Bruce were in a heated debate that had spiraled into the age old 'You'll never respect my judgment because you think I'll never be as good as you' argument, and almost everyone else had tuned out, until Dick insulted Selina.

It had almost turned into a brawl by the time Alfred's nephew, a thin man named Charles, had brought their dinner in. The smell of cooked meat wafted from the tray.

Lian's face went white, "Bart," she whispered.

His eyes went wide and he vanished, returning a second later with a trashcan from one of the many unused restrooms before grabbing the offending food and rushing it back to the kitchen. Lian clung to the can, but the urge to vomit had faded once the meat was gone. "You okay?" Bart asked softly, rubbing a hand up and down her back.

She nodded in response, and then looked around at the suddenly silent table.

All eyes were on them, and Lian tipped her head back, holding her hands over her face in mortification. "I suppose now is a bad time to tell everyone I'm pregnant."

"Oh shit." Bart hissed in displeasure at her side, and sunk in his chair as if he hoped it would swallow him whole.

Her mother spoke first, voice tight and deadly, "Excuse me?"

Lian nodded, taking a deep breath and looking levelly at her family, slipping one hand into Bart's for comfort, "Yup, I'm pregnant, we're pregnant, however you want to say it, the Harper-Allen family is going to have an addition not too long from now, and I'll be retiring from the field for the time being. Decided after I died that waiting was insane. I rushed to get married and that's been amazing, so why not get started on having kids?"

"You aren't even twenty years old." Her grandfather said icily, glaring at the pair.

Bart plucked up his courage and righted himself, "This is what Lian wants, and I know we all want her to be happy."

Kat threw the first punch, and Red followed shortly after.

A half hour later Lian and Bart were sitting on the porch. "That could have gone better." Lian whispered, holding a towel to Bart's broken nose to stem the blood flow. He groaned in pain, and she rubbed his shoulder, "Oh, be a man. Not all of us are blessed with rapid healing. I have to die first."

"It -ill -urts -ike -ell." Bart groaned, his words garbled.

Lian kissed his cheek, "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't think my mom would hit you." Lian moved the towel and hissed, "Ouch, she got you good. I'm so sorry."

"She's got fight, your Mom." Terry said, sitting down next to Lian. He peered at Bart, "You okay, man?"

Bart nodded and gave him a thumbs up. Lian studied her youngest uncle carefully, "What's on your mind, T?"

He gave her a lopsided grin, "It's going to be weird without you two here or at the Tower."

Lian tapped her index finger against his jaw, "Hey, we'll be around. Just not on missions, and we'll have our own place for our rug-rats to zoom around in. You're welcome by anytime you want."

"Knock!" Bart insisted, sniffing carefully and pulling Lian's hand away from his nose to test it's integrity.

Lian laughed, "Yes, knock." Terry continued to stare at her. "What?"

His upper lip pulled up in uncertainty, "You're pretty pregnant already, aren't you? You're kind of glossy."

Lian smiled, and held the towel out to Bart so he could wipe his healed nose clean, "I think you mean I'm glowing, Terry." She glanced at Bart before looking wryly back at Terry, "You're the only one who didn't overreact, I'm not surprised you're the only one to notice. Let's just say I've hopefully only got a couple more weeks of wanting to puke my guts up." He bit his lip, blue eyes studying his hands. Lian touched his dark hair gently, "McGinnis, what is it?"

"You weren't pregnant when you died, were you?" He blurted out, wincing as he said it.

The smile flickered off Lian's face, and she glanced back at Bart. She sighed, her younger uncle wasn't anything like Bruce Wayne, he was so much more emotionally intuitive. Lian shrugged, "No, I wasn't. Savage tested me. Still, we're being cautious for that very incident. Pretty much why we weren't actually planning on telling anyone yet."

Terry sighed, smiling slightly at her, "I'm happy for you, Li, really, I am."

Lian returned the tentative smile, swallowing back a whine at his emotions flowing into her, "Thanks, Ter."

He pulled her into a tight hug, "I'm just so sorry for everything I ever thought about you."

Lian held him and ran a hand up and down his back, "Please don't cry. I don't know what you're talking about, but if you start crying, I'm going to lose it. I'm not just an empath, but a hormonal empath right now."

He took a few ragged breaths, but she felt him pull himself together. He didn't let go though, "I was always a little jealous of you, Li. I felt like a freak, genetically engineered, and you weren't. I feel so guilty."

She got it. Lian understood where he was coming from, she really did, empathy or not. She gave him a tight squeeze, "Terry, it's okay. I get it. That's why I'm so terrified about having this baby. Who knows what I'll pass on to it." Bart put a hand on her back, grounding her. "With Bart and I as parents, there's really no doubt it's going to be a metahuman, empath or speedster or something, but the real question comes about when I think about whatever invulnerability or extra lives I might pass down." She teared up suddenly, "Terry, that's why I'm retiring. My child is going to know all about heroes, and all the incredibly amazing things our family does, but it can't know about Mom and I coming back from the dead."

Terry was frowning at her, "Why not?"

"Because can you imagine the risks a teenaged hero would take if he or she thought that they could just hit reset every time things got dicey?" Bart said gently, running his hand up and down Lian's spine.

"Oh." Terry said numbly.

"Yeah," Lian said in an equally dark tone, "But what if they couldn't? We don't fully understand the genetics of it all, but we can't risk breeding false confidence in our kid. I would never forgive myself if something happened." She shrugged, "Anyway, I'm only retiring from field work. I'll be up in the Watchtower helping J'onn all the time, as well as putting forth a more concerted effort on controlling my empathy. Apparently I was a terrible child, and it will be worse if I'm constantly projecting my emotions onto my possibly all too receptive child."

Terry shook his head, standing up to let Ace back into the manor before Selina pitched a fit at the dog scratching the door, "Man, that's screwed up."

Lian smiled at her husband, "Screwed up is a family trait I guess."

Bart laughed, leaning close to her stomach, "Stay in there as long as you can, little guy, your Momma's family is gonna have you throwing sharp stuff before you can use a fork."

Lian rolled her eyes at him, pulling him up so she could kiss him, "She is going to be beautiful and deadly just like the rest of the women in my family."

He chuckled, "You don't think my Aunt Iris is deadly? I think she's deadly, and Bart thinks she's pretty."

Lian kissed him again, "Alright, both your family and mine."

Bart shook his head, pulling her into his arms and putting his chin on the top of her head, "Nah, our family."

She let his emotions wash over her, warm and safe and loving, and rubbed her stomach fondly, sensing the burgeoning emotions of their child, "Yeah, our family."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "When all of your flaws and all of my flaws  
> Are laid out one by one  
> The wonderful part of the mess that we made  
> We pick ourselves undone
> 
> All of your flaws and all of my flaws  
> They lie there hand in hand  
> Ones we've inherited, ones that we learned  
> They pass from man to man
> 
> There's a hole in my soul  
> I can't fill it, I can't fill it  
> There's a hole in my soul  
> Can you fill it? Can you fill it?"
> 
> Flaws  
> By: Bastille
> 
> The final chapter is done, I swear, and will be posted Tuesday, if not tomorrow, depending on how many of you are still out there reading!
> 
> Thanks for hanging in there!
> 
> -Jenn


	16. Mess Is Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping everything up in this chapter after I finally realized that it never got posted!

“Momma!” Sophia Allen cried, running into the house, her twin brother, Thomas, right on her heels.

“Slow down, Soph.” Lian muttered, continually amazed that it was her non-metagene enhanced child that seemed to be the fastest to get in trouble.

“You hurt?” The four-year old asked, clamoring up into Lian’s arms.

Lian shrugged, wiping blood off a cut on her cheek, “Not really, just a scratch, baby girl.”

“Where’s Daddy?” Thomas asked, taking her hand, the youngest by half an hour, and aptly their most sensitive child.

“Taking a shower, bud.” She answered simply, sending a wave of reassurance to her empathic son so he wouldn’t go rushing in to see his father and stumble upon the blood soaked Flash uniform she was going to be up half the night washing.

Anthony, her oldest at seven years old, fell into step beside her as she walked to the kitchen, “Can Daddy and I go on a run tonight?”

Before Lian could answer, Bart scooped their speedster son up into his arms, “We sure can, dude, but only if you eat your veggies and mind your Momma.” Bart brushed a kiss to the side of her head, “You feeling okay?”

Lian nodded, grinning at him, “Yeah, you?”

He rubbed his side where he’d gotten clawed at by some creature she hadn’t bothered to learn the background on. It was mostly a flesh wound, but she knew even his quick metabolism wasn’t enough to heal it during his shower. “Been better, but I’ll be good by the time we’re done with dinner.” He grimaced when Anthony accidentally brushed his foot against the covered wound. “Owe.”

Anthony giggled, and they both practically vanished. Unsurprisingly, she found them both in the kitchen. Her hand drifted to her stomach as she wondered how she’d ever adjusted to feeding a family of five when two of them ate the same amount as twenty grown men. Truthfully, she used a lot of pre-made food, it wasn’t what she wanted to feed her family, but it was the only way to get the job done and at least her parents were more than eager to come over on weekends and help her make mass quantities of meals.

Little did they know that soon the amount of food was going to be more, but that wasn’t her biggest concern at the moment. She took the twins into the downstairs bathroom so they could wash their hands, and studied her youngest son, “What’s wrong, precious boy?”

“Sophie found something near the well, Momma. I don’t like it.” Thomas said, leaking anxiety, and staring up at her with wide green eyes.

Lian gently pushed the emotions back into his little body, something she’d spent a lot of time doing in the last four years. She could only imagine how terrible she’d been as a child without anyone to rein in the wild emotions all the time. Sure Bart had been able to soothe her, but he hadn’t been there all the time. Lian put her hands on her hips, knowing she looked just like her mother before Kat went in critiquing fighting form, “What did you find, Soph?”

The little girl set her jaw, clutching her closed fist to her chest. “It’s mine. You can’t have it, Momma.” Well that answered one question in the game of Twenty Questions she was beginning to play with her four year old. Bigger than a breadbasket? No.

“I just want to see it, hun.” Lian urged softly, becoming more than a little concerned over her daughter’s reticence. Then she realized she couldn’t feel the true depth of her daughter’s emotions. Now she understood Thomas’ anxiety, for the first time in his life, he couldn’t feel his own twin. Even for Lian, her powers still stronger than her young son’s, it felt like her empathy was sliding over glass, and the only other person who had ever felt like that to her had been her grandmother. Lian went rigid, the realization taking every ounce of levity out of her body, “Sophia Martha Allen, open your hand right now.”

Sophie shook her head slightly, and Lian noticed a second terrible change in her daughter. Her eyes were no longer her father’s bright green. They’d darkened, brown around the edges with only faint traces of the hue they’d been before clinging to the outer edge of her pupils. They were her great-grandmother’s eyes. They were cat eyes.

Lian’s voice shook, “Open your hand, Sophie. I won’t take it. I just want to look.”

Her daughter looked thoughtful for a moment, “Okay, Mama”

Then she opened her fist.

Lian stared at the red stone in her daughter’s hand in shock, and it wasn’t until Bart came into the room that the silence was broken, after he’d swayed a little in shock of course. “Well I’ll be damned. Looks like the Catwoman mantle is staying in the family after all.” His panic was barely masked, but enough to soothe Thomas.

“No.” Lian cursed, watching a sly familiar grin overtake her daughter’s face.

“Come catch me!” She screamed before bolting out of the room.

Bart grimaced at his wife, “I’ll be right back. Feel free to go freak out at your mother. I can tell you’re about to lose it.”

Lian nodded, feeling short of breath. She fumbled with her phone, telling Thomas to go find Anthony, and go play in the game-room. She could hardly speak when her mother answered the phone, “Lian, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“Grams.” Lian choked out.

“What? Did you have a nightmare? I thought you’d grown out of those.” Kat said, harassing her. Silence greeted her and she turned serious, “Lian, what’s wrong? Are the kids okay?”

“I’m pregnant.” Lian blurted.

Kat didn’t like the sound of her daughter’s voice, “I’m so happy for you, baby.” Silence again, “Lian, are you okay? Is there something wrong with...it?”

“I don’t know.” Lian gasped, sinking against the wall, “Just took a test this morning. But, Mom... Sophia found the stone.”

“What stone?” Kat asked carefully, waving her husband over and dreading their daughter’s response.

Lian’s voice was shaking, and she hardly registered the sound of Bart reentering the house with a squealing Sophie over his shoulder. “The red stone, Mom. The one Grams had, the one...”

“That denotes Bast’s favored, the next Catwoman.” Kat finished, and just let silence sit between them while she wrote everything down for Red to read over her shoulder.

“What am I going to do, Mom?” Lian finally gasped out.

Kat sighed, “Be her mother, Lian. She’ll never have to live the way my mother did. Hell, with the Wayne name and fortune, she’ll probably never even have to steal. It’ll be fine.”

“What am I going to do with four kids?” Lian sobbed.

Kat smiled at her husband, thinking of all the people she considered her children. “You’ll be fine, Lian. You and Bart are better parents than the rest of us combined, and you know it. And just four? You’re certain it’s not twins again?”

Lian nodded when Bart came to sink down next to her, “Yeah, just one. I can feel it. But, God, Catwoman? My four year old just had every shred of a normal future ripped from her and she doesn’t even know it.”

Red took the phone from Kat to talk to their daughter, “Pumpkin head, her legal name is Sophia Martha Wayne-Harper Allen, she was never going to have a normal future. You weren’t either, but you haven’t had it so bad, have you? Everything’s worked out.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” They’d been through a lot, but it had only made them stronger as a family. She sighed, “I’m not going to be the one to tell Gramps though.”

“We’ll let Sophie do it.” Her mother answered instantly, cheek to cheek with her husband so they could both talk to their daughter.

And so they did.

The next time the Allen’s visited Wayne Manor, Lian urged Sophie to show her great-grandfather her new treasure.

Bruce had stared, and then pulled Sophie into a hug that was as tight as his weary arms would allow. “Do good, baby girl. Make us proud, no matter how you do it.”

“I will.” Sophie said, solemn for a four year old.

Bruce smiled into her shoulder, “I know you will.”

He died in his sleep two months later, the day after Lian told him that their last baby would be another boy they intended to name James Alfred Allen. Although the public wanted a grand spectacle of a funeral, Kat, Damian, and Terry insisted that Wayne Enterprises allow the family to grieve as they saw fit, and not try to make money off their pain. As it was, most of the League members who had worked closely with him or any of his three children and several protégées attended, standing behind the family as the newest tombstone was added to the Wayne graveyard. It read in bold lettering: ‘Here lie Bruce and Selina Wayne, soul mates, beloved parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and friends to all those deserving.’

A small bat carved into the stone stood shrouded by Isis, but once the service was over, the black cat left it’s old mistress and her mate for the last time, twining himself around the ankles of his new mistress, a young girl with dark red hair her parents called Sophie. He remained by her side in a life he’d been denied for centuries, and was given the pleasure of being able to not only care for his new mistress, but the rest of his old mistress’s family. He had never been so satisfied, but the day the girl turned eighteen, she decided their time living in the lap of luxury for free was over.

Isis had been afraid that his new mistress wouldn’t be like those that had come before her, wouldn’t have the drive and craft, but Sophie was perhaps better than her grandmother before her. She wasn’t conflicted. She was fearless and even in temperament, sly and just coy enough to have anyone she wanted eating out of the palm of her hand. Her mother had been made from fire, but Sophie was fire personified.

She was also his first mistress to have siblings. Her three brothers pulled her into battle frequently, but she was fastidious about not killing, something she took from her great-grandfather. That didn’t mean that she shied away from a fight to protect her family. Some nameless villain Isis didn’t care to learn the name of had fourteen year old Jamie Allen by the throat, so Sophie went for his. She dropped the man, unconscious, not dead, onto the ground, and hauled her youngest brother to his feet, “You okay, J?”

Jamie nodded, “Yup.”

“Where’s Dad?” She asked him, trying not to baby him like the whole family had a tendency to do, considering he was the only one who wasn’t Goddess blessed or had a Metagene in their family. Sure Anthony mostly focused on taking the reins of the Wayne businesses, but he still used his speedster abilities when he wasn’t needed in a conference room.

“With Momma.” He said simply, nodding towards a building that had appeared out of nowhere on the landscape.

In the distance, Sophie could see their father running around defending their mother as she used her gifts to turn the tide of the battle. Sophie smiled at them, shaking her head, “They’re something, aren’t they?”

“Focus.” Her grandfather’s bored voice over the comm in her ear.

“Sorry, I’ll get on it! Remember my fee, though.”

She could feel J’onn laughing in her mind, and then heard her grandmother hiss at her, “You’ll get the jewels, Soph.”

Up in the Watchtower Katherine Harper rolled her eyes at her husband, muting her comm, “That girl is far too much like my mother.”

Red scoffed, “She’s far more likable than your mother ever was.” Sophie had at least had the decency to ask for a couple Wayne pieces before just taking them.

J’onn sighed and left the room when Kat snapped, “You loved my mother.”

“Only after I stopped hating her.” Red said honestly, working the muscles in his right hand. He was in his sixties now, and felt every year and every arrow he’d loosed. Kat was every bit as beautiful as she’d been at twenty, but fifty-five left it’s mark on the delicate silver color threading through her dark hair and laugh lines that made him smile every time he looked at them.

Darkness still followed Kat, but she’d found herself again, through Lian. The two had bonded tightly during the time Lian was pregnant with Anthony and her first months as a mother herself. Another year later, and Kat had come to him and asked him out on a date. It had been a big step for her to go past just propositioning him for sex.

Sophie had been the flower girl at their second wedding, Thomas the ring bearer. It had been perfect, even though Lian had had to walk her toddler down the aisle and Damian had stood as best man with his great-nephew in his arms.

Kat’s blue eyes regarded him carefully, “Are you okay?”

Red slid his hand into hers, and smiled at the love of his life, “I’m perfect.”

She echoed his earlier scoff, “Someone’s full of himself today.”

“I love you.” He said simply.

A tiny smile edged up the corners of her mouth, “I love you too.” A litany of curses came through the comm, and Kat sighed, refocusing on the task at hand, “Let’s get back to work, old man, before our granddaughter starts insulting us.”

Red shook his head, “I’ll never know where she got that mouth from.”

Kat’s delicately arched eyebrow said it all.

Even as they directed the mission, their hands remained clasped together, like they were always meant to be and always would be. Red and Kat Harper would never be apart again, and for the first time in decades, the Wayne legacy was pulling out of the darkness.

When the day was done and they were all back at the Manor, Kat and Red found themselves on one of the large sofas with Lian sandwiched between them. A mother of four and nearly forty years old, Lian knew her attachment to her parents was odd, but she’d gone for so long with them apart that she didn’t care, and relished being able to be near them.

“Momma?” Jamie said from the arched doorway, but Lian had already started moving when she’d felt his emotions.

“What’s wrong, baby?” She asked, pushing dark hair away from his face.

Kat snuggled into Red’s side, watching Lian comfort her little boy through his first break-up. “You were wrong earlier.” Kat whispered, moving to ease the stiff muscles in her thigh, “You’re not perfect. We’re all messy screwed up people, and together we’re pretty close to perfect.”

“Close to perfect.” Red echoed, leaning down to kiss her, “I’ll take it. I love you.”

Kat smiled at him, “I love you too, forever.”  
\-----------  
THE END

\-----------

* * *

 

**Epilogue**

 

Sophia stood beside her great-grandmother’s grave. “James was dumped today. It looks like he’s going to have the same luck Uncle Terry did, poor kid.”

 

Selina chuckled, “He’ll be fine, just like Terry was.”

 

Sophie glanced at the shade, “Are you certain?”

 

Selina shrugged, “I’m dead, Sophia, literally a figment of your supernatural imagination.”

 

“It’s not my imagination, Grandmother, you’re a shade summoned by Bast to aide me in times of need.” Sophie said, sighing heavily, “It must be a time of need then. I can feel something coming. Do you feel it too?”

 

“Animals can always feel disaster before it comes. We’re no different. Bast blesses us with many things, many ways that we are superior to the common man. Being my kin in itself is a blessing.” Selina said smugly.

 

Sophie rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand, “There’s a whole pile of shit headed for us, isn’t there?”

 

The smug smile fell off Selina’s translucent face, and she reached out, ghosting a hand along her great-granddaughter’s cheek, “Yes, little one, there is. You need to be ready. The stone chose you for a reason, you’re the best woman for the job. Nine lives, Sophia, make them count. Protect our family, protect Bast’s artifacts, protect the world she loves, but most of all, protect yourself. You’re a protector, Sophia.”

 

Sophie laughed darkly, “Don’t I know it. You’ve been telling me that since before I knew what the stone even meant. And no one else could tell me.”

 

Selina shrugged, “I couldn’t come to you until you were ready. Some of our secrets have to be discovered on their own.”

 

“I could have lived without nearly drowning to get to the temple.” She said wryly, shaking her head, “I’ve got to go needle Jamie. I have a reputation to uphold, you know?”

 

Selina smiled fondly, “You make me proud, Sophia, you always have, just like your mother and grandmother before you.” Sophie bit back a comment about her wild red curls being nothing like the smooth hair the other two females had, and then another about how hard it was to be worthy of everything she’d been born into.

 

Isis followed her inside. She had her family, and they were more than worth the pain of the burden she carried. She could only hope to protect them from what was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You're the reason that I feel so strong  
> The reason that I'm hanging on  
> You know you gave me all the time  
> Oh, did I give enough of mine?
> 
> Hold on, darling  
> This body is yours,  
> This body is yours and mine  
> Well hold on, my darling  
> This mess was yours,  
> Now your mess is mine"
> 
> Mess is Mine  
> By: Vance Joy
> 
> Thanks everyone for sticking with me this long! Kudos and comments are my bread and butter! <3


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